Roy (SSB4)

For information on the playable Koopaling, see Bowser Jr. (SSB4).

Roy in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Ultimate
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	Critical Hit
Tier	E (41)

“	Roy Seals the Deal!	”
—Introduction tagline

Roy (ロイ, Roy) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. Initially leaked via data mining of update 1.0.6, Roy was formally announced alongside Ryu during a Nintendo Direct on June 14th, 2015, and was made available that same day as downloadable content alongside Lucas and Ryu. Jun Fukuyama reprises his role as Roy's voice actor from Super Smash Bros. Melee, providing new voice clips that mimic the ones he recorded in the game. Roy, Marth, Takamaru, the Prince of Sablé, and Cloud are the only characters that speak Japanese in every regional version of SSB4.

Roy is ranked 41st out of 54 on the tier list, placing him in the E tier and rendering him as a mid-tier character. This is a slight improvement to his low-tier placement in Melee, where he was ranked 21st out of 26. Roy boasts good overall mobility and attack speed, owing to very fast dashing and air speeds, alongside fast-starting attacks that allow him to quickly react to openings. When coupled with the Binding Blade's highly damaging sweetspots, which are close to its hilt, he boasts impressive power and a number of strong KOing options at close range. In addition, Roy also benefits from gameplay changes brought about by SSB4: the rage mechanic supplements his strong sweetspotted attacks, the changes to hitstun and shieldstun make his sweetspots significantly safer on hit, while the updated edge mechanics improve his recovery. Finally, Roy also has a varied combo game that is difficult to predict and grants him above average damage racking potential, with reliable combo starters from low to medium percents including forward and down throw, neutral attack, neutral and up aerial, and Double-Edge Dance.

Unfortunately, Roy is strongly held back by a poor approach, owing to his slow air acceleration and unsafe aerials that cannot autocancel in a short hop. On a related note, Roy is ineffective at spacing: despite having disjointed range, the Binding Blade's inconvenient sourspots force him to space his sweetspotted attacks dangerously close to opponents. In addition, Roy's combo game is also flawed: his sweetspotted moves are ineffective at performing lengthy combos past medium percents, while his forward, back and down throws are heavily reliant on reads because of their very low hitstun. Finally, Roy suffers from a poor recovery: Blazer is predictable and covers very minimal vertical distance, while his very fast falling speed not only hinders his recovery, but also makes him susceptible to combos.

Although initially received positively, his flaws became more apparent as time went on, and as such Roy had attained below-average tournament representation. Despite this, he has achieved some degree of competitive success, thanks to the likes of players such as Cloudy, HyperKirby, and TheFlow.

Attributes

Roy and Marth performing their forward smash attacks. Note that the sweetspot is highlighted by the trail left by their swords: Roy's Binding Blade is strongest near its hilt, whereas Marth's Falchion is strongest at its blade's tip.

Unlike in Melee, Roy is a semi-clone of Marth, although he retains the attributes that differentiate the two. Compared to Marth, Roy sports the eleventh fastest dashing speed, the fourth fastest air speed, and the fifth fastest falling speed (7, 23, and 30 spots higher, respectively), alongside being 5 units heavier than Marth. Conversely, Roy walks significantly slower, being only above-average compared to Marth, while his air acceleration is among the bottom five. Finally, Roy's long extended dash-dance allows him to read and punish opponents accordingly. However, his laggy initial dash (17 frames) and turnaround animations give him a poor shield buffer out of his dash and turn. Overall, this places Roy's archetype as a speedy fast-faller with polarized, linear movement. Roy's mobility is considerably faster than Marth's in regard to movement speed and air-to-ground transitioning, but his aerial fluidity is significantly limited, preventing him from easily using retreating aerials like Marth and making his aerial approaches committal.

Apart from differences in attributes, many of Roy's attacks differ from Marth's by having separate animations, which in turn give his attacks completely altered hitbox sizes, frame values, and mechanical differences. This grants him a individualized playstyle compared to Marth, made most notable by his inverse tipper: the Binding Blade deals more damage and knockback near its hilt, and much less at its blade's tip, which has very little KO potential compared to Marth's untippered Falchion. However, its inverse tipper is much larger than Falchion's tipper, and most of its attacks are less polarizing due to their possession of a "mediumspot" that is between both its sweetspot and sourspot. Roy's sword, along with his attributes, encourages a highly rewarding close-and-personal game with heavy emphasis on landing hits with his sword's larger sweetspot, and has little focus on distant spacing due to its ineffective sourspots.

Much like his overall mobility, almost all of Roy's attacks have quick start-up, and his aforementioned speed allows him to easily close the gap between himself and his opponent to make effective use of his inverse tipper. Coupled with his sweetspot's serious damage, Roy has an above-average damage-racking game once he finds an opening. His most versatile combo initiators are his neutral aerial (which has quick start-up, low landing lag, and a long-lasting hitbox) and his neutral attack (which starts at frame 5 and launches at a favorable angle), both of which can start combos into his throws and tilts. His up aerial starts on frame 5 and has a deceptively long-lasting hitbox that lasts until the sword trail ends, allowing a reverse sweetspotted up aerial to start medium percent combos into neutral aerial, back aerial, or Blazer, or a sourspot into Double-Edge Dance depending on the enemy's reaction. Finally, forward aerial has very early interruptibility, allowing it to be used as a retreating aerial while jumping backwards, can chain into itself up to two times if Roy moves at full speed and uses his second jump, and can be used for frame-trapping against air dodges if followed up with an up aerial. His down tilt is also a good spacing option, and is useful for shield stabbing and edgeguarding due to its semi-spike trajectory.

Tied in with his damage-racking game are his throws, which launch at favorable angles for low-percent combos. Down and forward throws can chain into his neutral attack, dash attack, forward tilt, neutral aerial, Blazer, and Double-Edge Dance. As Roy's combo-initiating moves can often lead straight into a grab, it is common for Roy to deal high amounts of damage through precise reads at low percents, either from an attack into a grab, or through chaining a throw into an attack, then re-grabbing. While the low hitstun of his throws prevents true follow-ups at higher percents, they also force opponents into tech-chase and air dodge scenarios, allowing Roy to condition opponents into reacting. Up throw is also able to KO outright at very high percentages.

The power of Roy's sweetspotted moves also grants him an array of KOing options that are capable of KOing impressively early. While on-stage, his best KOing options are his forward and up tilts, forward and up smashes, and Blazer, due to their quick start-up and high power. His smash attacks, in particular, are immensely powerful; forward smash is one of the strongest of its kind and can be used for hard punishes at as low as 40%, up smash is capable of KOing as low as 100%, and the sweetspotted first hit of down smash can KO at around 120%. Although Roy's offense thrives while he is on-stage, his fast air speed and disjointed range grant him an effective off-stage presence. His forward, back, and down aerials each have distinct perks apart from their power: the former two are quick and have wide arcs, while the latter is a powerful meteor smash when sweetspotted. Although he is a middleweight, Roy is also one of the better users of rage, as his very quick falling speed grants him impressive on-stage endurance and allows him to further enhance the knockback of his already powerful moves.

Finally, each of Roy's special moves possesses respectable utility. Flare Blade is a deadly edgeguarding option, especially while on-stage, thanks to its fearsome power even when uncharged, large hitbox, and deceptively low ending lag. The latter allows it to be used as a mindgame to punish edge getups, while its speed can amplify Roy's sub-par aerial mobility by granting him an aerial B-reverse. Double-Edge Dance is effective for damage racking, catching dodges, and pressuring shields; its final upward and forward hits can also KO outright. Blazer is an excellent out of shield option, grants both brief super armor on start-up and high power when grounded, can stage spike careless opponents who attempt to edgeguard Roy, and can be a true combo from his down throw at 0%, or a neutral attack at specific percents as a KO combo. Lastly, his Counter is one of the strongest counterattacks in the game, as its 1.35× damage multiplier makes it devastating when used against a powerful attack.

However, Roy is hindered by a slew of flaws. Although he is granted a powerful offense, making use of it is difficult in the first place, despite his remarkable mobility, mainly due to several reasons. His very fast air speed is offset by his very slow air acceleration, making his aerial approach highly committal in general, much like Ryu's. In addition, while his inverse tipper is one of his greatest strengths, it also forces him to fight at close range to be utilized at its fullest: only his sweetspots cause enough shield stun to prevent punishment, and when coupled with his attacks having overall high ending lag (or in the case of his aerials, the inability to autocancel with a short hop), this results in him having to space attacks dangerously close against shields and negating the benefits of his disjointed sword. Finally, his range is below average for a swordsman, and when coupled with the Sword of Seal's low-utility sourspots, Roy's approach and spacing game is poor despite his good mobility, since his only quick, low-risk options that can be used to close in and pressure the opponent are his neutral aerial and falling up aerial.

Roy's combo game, while powerful at low percents, becomes inconsistent from medium percents onward. Although possible, Roy's sourspots are very unreliable for creating combos, unlike Marth's, as they require extreme precision and only work at specific percents. His sweetspots are similar, due to them sending opponents too far for actual combos and only being effective for outright KOing at high percents. His throws also lack any true follow-ups due to their very low hitstun: his forward throw can be easily teched, while his down throw can be air dodged out of. Overall, this makes Roy potent at damage racking, but his lack of KO setups puts him at a significant disadvantage when trying to end stocks, as it leaves him only with hard punishes.

Lastly, Roy's offstage endurance is notoriously poor. His very quick falling speed makes him extremely susceptible to combos, and as none of his moves are generally reliable enough to consistently break combos, many characters with reliable combo moves can rack up large amounts of damage and easily force him off-stage. To add to this issue, Roy's only recovery move, Blazer, is notoriously ineffective despite his impressive mobility: although it offers excellent protection, can be angled, and covers a decent amount of horizontal distance, it covers little vertical distance and is predictable. When coupled with his very quick falling speed, he is highly susceptible to meteor smashes, and even a sufficiently strong semi-spike can launch him too far away to recover. Additionally, players unaccustomed to his falling speed will quickly find that any misused aerial off-stage will send him too far to recover.

Although tournaments do not currently allow custom moves, it should be noted that Roy does not have any due to being a DLC character. As such, he must not only utilize his own special moves properly, but also adapt as best as possible against characters that possess their own custom moves.

Overall, Roy's strengths are on par with his weaknesses. While his character archetype is commonly viewed as being in the rushdown and/or glass cannon categories, he cannot effectively function in either role due to his poor recovery, unimpressive range for a swordsman, and vulnerability to combos. Instead, his optimal playstyle consists of limited aggression: capitalizing on enemy openings with his excellent mobility, and pressuring them with both his powerful sweetspots and effective combo game, but approaching cautiously and spacing his sweetspots safely enough to circumvent his flaws. As a result of these traits, Roy has sparse tournament representation and results at high-level play, although he has nevertheless achieved some competitive success, thanks to players such as Hyper Kirby and Cloudy.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee

Roy is frequently placed within a group of characters (Bowser, Dr. Mario, Charizard, King Dedede and Pit) that are the most noticeably reworked veterans in SSB4. In Roy's case, several of his moves were de-cloned from Marth in a similar vein to Falco and Ganondorf in Brawl, to the point that he is now a semi-clone. Although Roy received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from Melee to SSB4, he has overall been buffed.

Among Roy's buffs are his greatly improved mobility, now having a much faster dashing speed and one of the fastest air speeds in the game, as well as his moveset being notably more rewarding than in Melee: most of his moves are different from Marth, such as his new neutral attack, forward and up tilts, dash attack and down aerial, most of which have reduced lag, improved hitbox placements, and increased power, improving his close-ranged offense and combo game, and giving him more reliable KO moves. His damage output is much higher, and his sweetspotted attacks are considerably more powerful, giving him a bevy of new KOing options, which generally alleviates his main weakness from Melee. His attack speed is faster overall, with his aerials in particular having significantly reduced ending and landing lag, L-canceling notwithstanding. The addition of rage boosts his KO power even further, while his heavier weight allows him to use it quite effectively. He also has much better endurance thanks to his much higher weight. Lastly, Roy's recovery is generally better, thanks to Blazer's improved horizontal distance, his faster air speed, and the removal of edge hogging.

However, Roy has also received several nerfs. Roy now stands at Marth's height, which enlarges his hurtbox, though his attacks have much shorter ranges and hitbox durations despite this, forcing him to fight at a much closer range, exacerbating one of his key weaknesses in Melee. For the most part, Roy is also harmed by the post-Melee gameplay changes: the loss of wavedashing and L-canceling, as well as the weakening of dash-dancing, noticeably worsen his approach. The general increase in range for other characters since Melee, such as with Donkey Kong and Bowser, also indirectly hurts him. Double-Edge Dance's first hit has almost completely lost its ability to stall his descent due to his faster falling speed, which hurts his recovery despite its improvements. Lastly, Roy's heavier weight makes him easy to combo despite falling speeds being slower in SSB4 than they were in Melee.

Overall, Roy's strengths are much more pronounced than in Melee, though he retains most of the same weaknesses as well. While his sweetspotted attacks are considerably more rewarding, he still has to fight up close to rack up damage, while his subpar endurance makes his playstyle risky. Despite Roy having been overall buffed, other veterans were also buffed to varying degrees, which downplays his strengths in SSB4's metagame.

Aesthetics

• Roy's design is now a combination of his appearances in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and Fire Emblem Awakening. His taller height, more muscular physique, slightly smaller eyes, and Turkey red hair are from Awakening, whereas his facial structure and hairstyle are from The Binding Blade. Roy's cuirass, pauldrons, and boots are also from his attire in The Binding Blade, whereas his vambraces, poleyns, greaves, and gloves are from his attire as an Einherjar in Awakening.
• Roy's shirt, pants, headband, and cape are now amalgamations of his respective articles of clothing in The Binding Blade and Awakening, whereas his poleyns are amalgamated with the design of his pauldrons. Additionally, Roy's boots are now coyote brown with gray toe boxes, carnelian bootstraps, and metallic gold soles. Lastly, his gloves are now carnelian, instead of blue. These changes are unique to SSB4.
• Roy now has eight costumes much like the rest of the cast. He has received six new alternate costumes, each of which is based on Alen, Lance, Marcus, Zephiel, Cecilia, and his father, Eliwood.
• Roy has been updated with universal features introduced in Brawl.
  • Roy uses various voice clips for any move between any tilt attack, his dash attack, and all aerial attacks except for his down aerial.
  • Roy has an on-screen appearance and two new taunts. His taunt from Melee has been moved to his down taunt.
• Roy is more expressive. He smiles during his fist-pumping idle pose, and either scowls or sternly clenches his teeth during some attacks.
• The Binding Blade's trail now clearly indicates its sweetspot's location, similarly to Falchion.
• Aside from retaining some of Marth's animations, Roy now swings the Binding Blade in a reverse grip or with both hands. This has translated to his moveset, be it through a tweaked animation or a completely new move.
• Roy now has a unique idle animation, instead of variations of Marth's, and has two new idle poses. However, his stance while holding a light item is identical to Marth's.
• Roy has a new victory pose. He now spins the Binding Blade one and a half times and then sheaths it rather than planting it on the ground.
• Jump, sidestep, and shield break's animations have changed.

Attributes

• Roy is taller, making his hurtbox slightly larger. While this would also improve his overall range, this is largely mitigated by the majority of his moveset having smaller hitboxes and/or altered hitbox placements because of the aforementioned alterations to most of his sword-based attacks' animations.
• Roy is significantly heavier (85 → 95), going from a heavier lightweight to an average middleweight (tied with Robin and Pac-Man). This improves his endurance, but makes him more susceptible to combos.
• Roy walks slower (1.2 → 1.15).
• Roy dashes much faster (1.61 → 1.95).
• Roy jumps higher (28.36337281 → 30.969999).
  • Roy's short hop height is also higher (9.132671053 → 13). Compared to the returning veterans, however, Roy's short hop height is lower, going from the fifth lowest out of 26 characters to the sixth lowest out of 58.
• Roy's air speed is drastically faster (0.9 → 1.24), going from the 12th fastest in Melee to the fourth fastest.
• As with the returning veterans, Roy's falling speed was decreased (2.4 → 1.8). Compared to the returning veterans, however, Roy falls faster. Improving his vertical endurance, but also making him more susceptible to combos.
• The removal of chain grabbing both helps and hinders Roy. It results in him no longer being susceptible to chain grabs, while his faster falling speed results in him no longer being susceptible to pseudo-chain grabs. However, it hinders his damage-racking potential.
• The weakening of dash-dancing and the removal of wavedashing significantly hinder Roy's approach.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Roy has a new neutral attack, a reverse-gripped upward slash. Compared to the previous neutral attack, it deals more damage (3%/5%/6% → 4.8%/7.5%/7.5%) and base knockback (30/5 → 40/32), has less ending lag (FAF 26 → 23), and has a different angle (361° → 62°/32°). Altogether, these traits make it significantly better for combos.
  • Neutral attack has more start-up lag and its duration is shorter (frame 4-7 → 5-7) compared to the previous neutral attack.
• Forward tilt:
  • Roy has a new forward tilt, a reverse-gripped downward slash. Compared to the previous forward tilt, it deals more damage (12%/10%/7% → 12.5%/9%/8%) and knockback (60/30 (base)/70 (scaling) → 30/40 (base)/100/80 (scaling)) and has less start-up (frame 9 → 8) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 32). Altogether, these traits make it better for KOing.
  • Forward tilt's duration is shorter (5 frames → 3) than the previous forward tilt's.
• Up tilt:
  • Roy has a new up tilt, a reverse-gripped overhead arcing slash. Compared to the previous up tilt, it deals more damage (6%/8%/9%/10% → 7%/12%), and the sweetspot has more knockback scaling, making it much stronger, while the sourspots deal consistent damage and less knockback scaling (120/118/116/100 → 103). It also has less start-up (frame 7 → 6) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 39), and its sourspot has more base knockback (20 → 30). Altogether, these traits make it better both for KOing and combos.
  • Up tilt's duration is shorter (7 frames → 5) than the previous up tilt's.
• Down tilt:
  • Sweetspotted down tilt deals less damage (12% → 11%).
  • Sourspotted down tilt deals more damage (6% → 6.5%).
  • Down tilt has decreased start-up lag (frame 8 → 7).
  • Down tilt has decreased base knockback (90/70 → 50/40). Due to its angle being altered (80° → 30°), it is also now a semi-spike. These changes improve its edgeguarding and tech-chasing potential, but significantly hinder its combo potential.
  • Down tilt has increased ending lag (FAF 20 → 22) and a shorter duration (3 frames → 2).
• Dash attack:
  • Roy has a new dash attack, an inward horizontal slash. Compared to the previous dash attack, it deals more damage (12%/6% → 13%/9%), knockback (70/35 (base)/55/60 (scaling) → 65/60 (base)/82/60 (scaling)), and its sweetspot has a different angle (110° → 52°). It also does not suffer from the infamously poor hitbox issues at close range from Melee due to it being a different attack. Altogether, these traits make it better for KOing.
  • Dash attack has more start-up (frame 12 → 13) and ending lag (FAF 40 → 50) compared to the previous dash attack.
• Forward smash:
  • Roy has a new forward smash, a rotating two-handed downward slash based on his regular attack as a Great Lord in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Compared to the previous forward smash, its sweetspot is smaller because it has a "medium-spot" that deals 3% less damage (20% → 17%). It also has more start-up (frame 12 → 14) and ending lag (FAF 54 → 55), less vertical range, and a shorter duration (3 frames → 2).
  • Sweetspotted forward smash has different knockback compared to the previous forward smash's sweetspot (80 (base)/65 (scaling) → 70/70).
  • Due to the damage multiplier for fully charged smash attacks being increased from Melee to SSB4 (1.3671× → 1.4×), fully charged forward smash deals more damage (27.324%/16.4052% → 28%/16.8%).
  • The 19% damage increase to shields, and the increase to shieldstun make sweetspotted forward smash significantly better at pressuring shields compared to the previous forward smash's sweetspot.
• Up smash:
  • Due to the damage multiplier for fully charged smash attacks being increased from Melee to SSB4 (1.3671× → 1.4×), fully charged up smash deals more damage (22.639176% → 23.8%).
  • Due to the changes to stale move negation, up smash deals 0.44% more damage (16.56% → 17%), although its base knockback was compensated (73 → 70). It also has decreased start-up lag and a longer duration (10 frames → 12). Additionally, its spike hitbox now properly keeps opponents in place for the other hits. Lastly, it now grants intangibility to Roy's arm throughout its duration.
  • Up smash has significantly increased ending lag (FAF 46 → 59).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's front hit deals less damage (21%/14% → 15%/10%), hindering its KO potential.
  • Down smash's back hit deals more damage (16%/8% → 17%/11%) and its angles have been altered (75°/361° → 50°/47°/361°), improving its KO potential. It also has decreased ending lag (FAF 72 → 63).
  • Down smash's knockback properties have been reversed, making the back hit stronger than the front hit.
  • Down smash has a shorter duration (6 frames → 4).
  • The 19% damage increase to shields and the increase to shieldstun significantly improve sweetspotted down smash's shield pressuring potential.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have decreased ending lag (FAF 50 → 46 (neutral), FAF 35 → 30 (forward), FAF 43 → 36 (back), FAF 49 → 42 (up), FAF 64 → 52 (down)).
• Neutral, forward, and up aerials autocancel later (frame 32 → 47 (neutral), frame 30 → 33 (forward), frame 30 → 38 (up)). Forward aerial, in particular, no longer has an autocancel window, losing its ability to autocancel.
• All aerials have decreased landing lag (20/10 frames (normal/L-canceled) → 11 (neutral), 20/10 frames → 13 (forward), 24/12 frames → 16 (back), 18/9 frames → 14 (up), 32/16 frames → 23 (down)). Due to the removal of L-canceling, however, they are not fully compensated.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Due to consisting of a sweetspot and a sourspot instead of a consistent hitbox, neutral aerial's first hit no longer deals consistent damage (4% → 6%/4%).
  • Neutral aerial's sweetspotted second hit deals 0.5% more damage (8% → 8.5%).
  • Neutral aerial has decreased start-up lag (frame 7 → frame 6 (hit 1), frame 17 → frame 15 (hit 2)). Its second hit also has increased knockback scaling (80 → 100), and its angle has been altered (361° → 50°). Altogether, these changes improve its combo and KO potential.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial deals more damage (8%/5% → 11%/7%) and has increased knockback (30/10 (base)/70 (scaling) → 50/80), significantly improving its KO potential.
  • Forward aerial's animation has slightly changed. Roy now swings the Binding Blade while lunging farther inward. This new animation doubles its start-up lag (frame 5 → 10).
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial deals 3% more damage (9%/6% → 12%/9%) and has increased knockback scaling (70 → 100), significantly improving its KO potential. It also autocancels earlier (frame 34 → 32).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial's duration is longer (5 frames → 7) and its sweetspot has increased knockback (20 (base)/70 (scaling) → 40/80), improving its juggling potential.
• Down aerial:
  • Roy has a new down aerial, a two-handed downward slash between his legs, similar to Ike's down aerial. Compared to the previous down aerial, it deals much more damage (6%/9% → 10%/15%), has more vertical range, its sweetspot is easier to land, and its sourspot has KO potential against grounded opponents. It also has higher knockback (40 (base)/70 (scaling) → 20/30 (base)/90 (scaling)) compared to the previous down aerial, improving its KO potential.
  • Down aerial has less horizontal range, more start-up lag, and a shorter duration (frames 7-10 → 16-17) compared to the previous down aerial.
  • The removal of meteor canceling makes down aerial significantly better at meteor smashing compared to the previous down aerial.

Throws/other attacks

• All grabs have significantly decreased ranges.
• Dash grab has decreased start-up lag (frame 10 → 8).
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals 1% less damage (3% → 2%).
  • Pummel is faster (24 frames → 15).
• Up throw:
  • Up throw deals more damage (5% → 6%).
  • It has reduced knockback scaling (130 → 100), hindering its KO potential despite its higher damage output.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw deals less damage (6% → 5%).
  • It launches at a higher angle (361° → 80°), which, coupled with its lower damage output, significantly improves its combo potential.
• Floor attack:
  • Front and back floor attacks deal more damage (6% → 7%).
  • Due to the introduction of tripping in Brawl, Roy has received a floor attack after tripping.

Special moves

• Flare Blade:
  • Flare Blade can be charged up to deal more damage before the full charge without receiving recoil damage (41% → 45%). It also has increased interruptibility for a few frames upon its hitbox being active despite its ending lag.
  • Flare Blade has increased start-up lag, its duration is shorter (6 frames → 4), a smaller hitbox, and it takes slightly more time to fully charge. It has also received a sourspot at the edges of the attack that deals 15% less damage (50% → 35%) and has less knockback scaling (83 → 70).
  • Flare Blade has updated visual effects. All of its stages now unleash a minor explosion, with most of the higher stages unleashing the large explosions from Melee. It also has updated sound effects, as it now stops emitting sound when fully charged and before its explosion.
  • Flare Blade's animation has slightly changed. Roy now briefly lifts the Binding Blade with both hands to his side when returning to his neutral stance.
  • Roy has gained a new voice clip for releasing a fully charged Flare Blade. In Melee, it used his blast KO voice clip.
• Double-Edge Dance:
  • Aside from its first and fourth downward hits, Double-Edge Dance's other have decreased start-up lag. Its third downward hit no longer consists of multiple hits and launches at a lower trajectory. These changes make its hits connect better.
  • Double-Edge Dance deals less damage and has decreased knockback, vertical range, and increased ending lag. Additionally, Roy's faster falling speed significantly hinders its first hit's recovery potential. Lastly, its third upward hit is no longer a meteor smash, removing its KO potential.
  • All variations of Double-Edge Dance's third hit connect better with its fourth hit. This improves their combo potentials, but removes their KO potentials.
  • Double-Edge Dance now has transcendent priority, improving its reliability.
  • The 19% damage increase to shields and the increase to shieldstun significantly improve Double-Edge Dance's last downward hits' shield pressuring potential.
  • Double-Edge Dance's animation has changed. The slashes are now identical to Dancing Blade from Brawl.
  • Like Marth in Brawl, Double-Edge Dance no longer causes Roy to glow. Instead, the sword trail glows according to the direction inputted (red → side, blue → up, green → down).
• Blazer:
  • Blazer deals more damage (13.18% → 16.8%), and its last hit has increased knockback (10 (base)/100 (scaling) → 40/130), improving its KO potential. It also has lingering hitboxes at its end, and can be reversed before start-up. It also travels a more horizontal distance, and the grounded version received more intangibility frames on start-up.
  • Blazer travels less vertical distance.
  • Blazer's first hit has significantly decreased set knockback (200 → 160/120). This makes its hits connect together better, but removes its one-hit KO potential against the lightest characters.
  • Blazer's animation has slightly changed. Roy now performs the jumping slash while holding the Binding Blade in a reverse grip.
• Counter:
  • Counter's damage multiplier has decreased (1.5× → 1.35×), although its knockback was somewhat compensated (30 (base)/90/70 (scaling) → 35 (base)/100/70 (scaling)), hindering its KO potential. Additionally, the damage cap can only reach a maximum of 50%, now matching the rest of the multiplier-based counterattacks in Smash 4.
    • Due to its change, Counter-stacking no longer crashes the game.
  • Counter's duration is longer (frames 8-20 → 8-27).
  • Counter's animation has changed. Its counterattack now resembles Roy's long-ranged basic attack with the Binding Blade in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. This new animation increases its horizontal range.
• Critical Hit:
  • Roy now has a Final Smash, Critical Hit. Unlike Marth and Lucina's Critical Hit, Roy's version is stationary and has him swing the Binding Blade around himself before performing a slash in front of himself that emits a short-ranged explosion.

Update history

Roy has been slightly buffed via game updates. Update 1.1.0 gave Blazer additional hitboxes, making it easier to land. However, the same update reduced the damage outputs of its first and last hits, which slightly weakened its KO potential. The changes to shield mechanics brought about by updates 1.1.0 and 1.1.1 have made Roy's sweetspotted attacks much safer at the cost of his sourspotted attacks being unsafer, to the point where his semi-clone, Lucina, has safer attacks than both him and Marth. Lastly, update 1.1.4 decreased the landing lag on all of Roy's aerials, which improved his neutral and up aerials' combo potentials when they are SHFF'd, and decreased Double-Edge Dance's start-up and ending lag.

1.1.0

• Blazer's first and last hits deal 1% less damage: 6.5% (hit 1 sweetspot)/5% (hit 1 sourspot), 9% (hit 5 sweetspot)/8% (hit 5 sourspot) → 5.5%/4%, 8%/7%. This makes its first hit connect together better, but hinders its KO potential.
• Blazer has received additional hitboxes.
•