Roy (Super Smash Bros. Melee)


 * This article is about Roy's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For other uses, see Roy. Also, for information about the character of whom Roy is a clone, see Marth (SSBM).

Roy (ロイ, Roi) is a secret character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Due to the vast amount of similarities between Roy and fellow Fire Emblem lord, Marth, Roy is considered to be a "clone" of Marth; although, they do also have their differences in their fighting styles. He is a secret character, unlocked either by completing Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with Marth, or by playing 900 VS. mode matches.

Roy is currently ranked 14th on the Tier List due to his vulnerability against various combos and chain-grabs (due to his very fast falling speed and long periods of hitstun that he suffers), sub-par combo ability (due to his low hitstun attacks, which is truly problematic at high level play), high difficulty in KO-ing, and very bad overall match-ups against the majority of the cast (although some match-ups are considered advantageous or even).

Attributes
Overall, Roy is a strong, fast character with great reach (including his grab reach). However, he is over-reliant on his side smash to score KOs. Roy's fast falling speed makes him difficult to be KO'd off the top, but easy to combo (especially since he suffers long periods of hitstun). Roy has a spike (such as his tipped up smash) and two meteor smashes, but they are all difficult to utilise effectively. Roy's counter is the most powerful in the game (it multiplies damage and knockback by 1.5). On the downside, it is harder to time than Marth's counter and leaves Roy vulnerable if it misses. Roy's down tilt is good combo starter, but Roy still has trouble comboing opponents due to his attacks having low hitstun. Some of his moves have more knockback when tipped (e.g. down smash), but the best of his damage infliction requires a sweetspot. Roy can chain grab some characters using his up and forward throws, and he has a fast, long dash-dance. However, he lacks a projectile, and his horizontal recovery is poor in general.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack- Similar to Marth's, two slashes in front of him, though harder to chain. First hit does 6%, second does around 5%.
 * Dash Attack- Slashes in front of him for 12%.
 * Forward Tilt- A slash in front, somewhat slower than his Neutral Attack. Can be a killing move at high percentages or when the blast line is close by. 10% damage.
 * Down Tilt- A sword poke to the ground. Has longer hitstun than most of Roy's other attacks. Good combo starter overall. 10% damage.
 * Up tilt- Upwards slash, similar in appearance to neutral attack. 9% damage.

Smashes

 * Forward Smash- An attack very similar to Flare Blade, except without the fire effects, less charge time, and less knockback. Uncharged 20%, 27% fully charged. Roy's main killing move outside of edgeguarding.
 * Down Smash- Swipes his sword on both his sides. Assuming Roy's facing left, 13% in front of him, 5% behind uncharged, 19% in front and 13% behind fully charged. If sweetspotted, 21% uncharged and 28% fully charged (in front). A decent killer, useful for vertical KOs.
 * Up Smash- A relatively quick sword thrust upwards with fire effects. Can actually spike if enemy is hit on the sword's tip during the start of the attack. 16% uncharged, 20% fully.

Other Attacks

 * Ledge Attack- Gets up and slashes, 8% damage
 * 100% Ledge Attack- Similar to his normal ledge attack, 8% damage
 * Floor Attack- Slashes on both sides, 6% damage.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Aerial- Two swipes around him, 4% first slash, 7% second.
 * Forward Aerial- Swipes sword in front of him. Does 8% with surprising range.
 * Back Aerial- Turns around and swipes his sword, similar to his f-air. Like's Marth's b-air, this move turns Roy around. 9% damage.
 * Down Aerial- Swipes below him. Meteor smash sweetspot is just above the hilt, so basically you have aim to hit only your opponent's feet to meteor smash them. Hard to kill with this move, as sweetspot is hard to master and lag often makes it not worth the effort. 6%.
 * Up Aerial- Swipes above while doing a backflip, does 6% damage.

Grabs & Throws

 * Pummel- Knees foe, 2-3% damage.
 * Forward Throw- Knocks opponent forward. Can chain-grab certain heavyweights at very low percents. Inflicts 5% damage.
 * Back Throw- Tosses foe behind him. Inflicts 5% damage.
 * Up Throw- Thrusts opponent upwards. Can chain-grab the space animals at lower percents. Inflicts 5% damage.
 * Down Throw- Tosses the foe to the ground. Inflicts 6% damage.

Comparison to Marth
The comparison of Marth and Roy had a significant impact on the Smash community in 2003 and 2004 during the "tier wars" at GameFAQs, where they were a major flashpoint of the debate over the existence of tiers. The "pro-tiers" who tried to prove the existence of tiers to the "anti-tiers" compared many of Marth and Roy's statistics, from running speed to power, to reach the conclusion that Marth is the better character. They argued that Marth was faster, heavier, stronger, and better at recovering than Roy. The anti-tiers responded by trying to refute the point that Marth was stronger, stating that the size of Roy's sweet spot makes up for Marth's added strength at the tip of his blade.

Eventually, the pro-tiers won the argument and many people agreed that Marth is a superior fighter to Roy. Nowadays, however, it is known that many of these comparisons were either false or insignificant, due to poor analysis; for instance, Marth's extra weight is negligible, and may even be interpreted as a disadvantage, considering Marth (with his extra weight) is susceptible to Fox's shine combos and Roy (being lighter) is not. More importantly, a common assumption is that Marth is faster than Roy. This is questionable, considering that Roy's SHFFL is faster than Marth's due to his falling speed and lower short hop.

Despite lapses in the original analysis, however, players still agree that Marth is an overall better character, for reasons better supported with modern knowledge than those proposed in the past. The principle reason is precisely the one that anti-tiers tried to refute - that Roy has too much trouble trying to kill his opponents, being effectively weaker, and that Marth, with his superior combos and killers, can kill much more easily.

Gameplay
As with all low tiers, Roy's gameplay emphasizes his strengths and attempts to make his weaknesses as unnoticeable as possible. This means a heavy reliance on his DED, grab, down tilt and forward smash.

DED
Roy's Side B, the Double-Edge Dance, is one of his most used moves, with good reason. It is fast, can combo with itself, variable, and has decent knockback on the third hit, and good knockback on the fourth.

Generally the DED is used out of a dash dance, and is therefore increased in usefulness by Roy's great dash dance.

Good ideas with DED include only using the first hit to knock people out of the air; since it is disjointed, Roy can (relatively easily) stop approachers.

Against CCers or SG's, >B >B VB puts most characters out of range of the shield grab, and knocks crouch cancellers over.

Roy can combo FFers into the third strong hit at higher percents (and others at lower %'s) by using >B ΛB >B. This is useful when having trouble landing a forward smash.

>B (>B/ΛB) ΛB will meteor smash the opponent. It can be used in attempt to meteor smash someone off the level, or to set up for a tech chase. Neither work very often.

If the player is committed to using the 4th hit of the DED, which shouldn't be very often, typically ΛB is the way to go. It has as much knockback as the last >B, and WILL shield poke if the opponent's head is sticking above his shield just a little.

VB and >B as the fourth hits are useful against CCers who want to take all the damage and if a little extra range is needed-respectively.

The >B, >B, ΛB, VB combo will almost always hit the opponent, first by slamming him down with the ΛB then following up with the VB's multiple hits. The whole combo may deal at least 40% of damage with the option and possibility of finishing off with a down smash resulting in more damage.

Down

 * Down throw + side tilt- a basic combo good for spacing at low %s
 * down throw + side special combo- a self-explanatory combo good at mid percents
 * Down throw + side smash- a decent combo where it can sweetspot at low-mid percents, and cannot be done at higher percents
 * Down throw + turn around + down tilt- can be DI'd, but good for spacing.

Up

 * Note: The first four of these work usually only at 0%-20%


 * Up throw + up smash- at low percents, fast fallers can hardly escape this combo
 * Up throw + up tilt- only works on heavier characters at near 0%s, but safer.
 * Up throw + side special (up variation)- self explanatory
 * Up throw + up special- self explanatory
 * Up throw + up aerial- at mid percents, may also work with n-air

Forward

 * Forward throw + side special- self explanatory
 * Forward throw + dash attack- can be escaped at the lower or higher percents

Back

 * Back throw + f-tilt- only reliable at mid to lower percents
 * Back throw + side special- self explanatory
 * Back throw + dash attack- self explanatory

Trophy Descriptions
In addition to the normal trophy about Roy as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Roy on any difficulty:
 * (Smash Red)
 * While Roy's moves are well balanced, he's a little on the slow side, and doesn't excel at midair combat. His blade, the Sword of Seals, gives him excellent reach, and makes his Double-Edge Dance slightly different than Marth's Dancing Blade. When it's fully charged, Roy's destructive Flare Blade delivers an instant KO.
 * B: Flare Blade
 * Smash B: Double-Edge Dance


 * (Smash Blue)
 * Roy's blade is different than Marth's; he does the most damage hitting with the center of his sword. So, a fearless advance into the arms of his foe is Roy's best bet. Blazer is a bit slower than Marth's Dolphin Slash, but it's still a mighty attack that sets anyone it strikes aflame. Roy's attack after using Counter differs slightly from Marth's.
 * Up & B: Blazer
 * Down & B: Counter

Trivia

 * Roy is the only clone of an unlockable character.
 * Roy does not feature a sheath during gameplay like Marth does. This is odd because the sheath is present in all three of his trophies and victory poses. It is presumable that Roy's taunt was intended for him to flip the sword around and then sheath during his stance, this would make for a more appropriate taunt considering the sword was almost always sheathed during Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
 * Roy and Marth are the only two characters in Melee that speak Japanese, regardless of language settings.
 * Roy and Marth both use their sword for every attack except their pummels and throws.
 * Roy and Marth are the only playable characters in Melee that don't have a stage representing their universe, though hacked data shows that one was planned.
 * Roy does not appear in Classic Mode, neither as an ally nor an opponent.
 * Roy's up smash is the only up smash in Super Smash Bros. history that is a spike (when sweetspotted).
 * Roy, Mr. Game & Watch and Pichu are the only characters in Melee to have an attack that damages themselves. Roy damages himself by 10% when he attacks with a fully charged Flare Blade, Pichu damages itself when it uses an electrical based attack, and Mr. Game and Watch damages himself when he uses a Judge #1.
 * Roy, Marth, and Peach are the only characters in Melee with a special move that can counter a physical attack.