Roy

For other characters with the same name, see Roy (disambiguation).

Roy (, Roy) is the protagonist of , the sixth game in the series. He debuted in Super Smash Bros. Melee as an unlockable character, and returned as a playable character in both Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after being absent from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Origin
The lead character of what became  underwent many changes throughout the game's development. This affected how he would be represented in Super Smash Bros. Melee, as it was being developed at the same time. Roy first appeared in his design closest to his eventual Melee design through a preview of The Binding Blade shown at Nintendo Space World 2001. Melees Japanese release ended up preceding The Binding Blades by four months.

Nintendo of America and Masahiro Sakurai discussed Roy's inclusion in the American Melee release, as Fire Emblem games were still Japan-exclusive. In the end, Roy was kept in overseas releases since NoA believed he would be "fun". Roy and Marth's popularity in Melee is generally considered to be a factor in the Fire Emblem franchise gaining international interest from gaming audiences, leading to it receiving regular international releases.

Roy hails from, one of six nations of the land of , and is the son of , ruler of the Lycian noble house of. The game begins with Roy called back home from his studies in the province of Ostia in response to the militant nation of Bern launching invasions of Elibe's other realms. As Eliwood has fallen ill, Roy is entrusted with leading Pherae's army alongside the other armies of the Lycian League against Bern and its ruler,, who displays a mysterious thirst for the destruction of human rule. Zephiel's errant younger sister, Princess, escapes Bern and comes to Roy in defiance of her brother's motives, hoping to negotiating a treaty with Lycian nobility. Roy quickly agrees to her proposal to search for a peaceful means to end Bern's aggression.

The war, and their quest to end it, takes Roy and Guinivere across Elibe. They fight the forces of Bern and opportunistic traitors within other countries, unite other lands behind their cause, and learn of Zephiel's ambition to return Elibe to dragon rule to right what he views as a wrong:, an ancient war in which humans drove dragons out of Elibe. To achieve their mission, Guinivere entrusts Roy with the Fire Emblem, an important gemstone in the culture of Bern which Roy uses to unlock the, a powerful weapon from the age of the Scouring once wielded by the forefather of Bern,.

Once he acquires the Binding Blade, Roy invades Bern and defeats Zephiel in his own castle, then—in the game's good ending—embarks on a quest to find Zephiel's ally, a soulless Demon Dragon created by ancient dragons to fight back against humanity, seeking to undo the damage that the dragons did to her. Regardless of the ending the player achieves, the game ends with Roy returning to Pherae and helping rebuild, eventually succeeding his father as its marquess.

Roy is an upstanding and thoughtful fifteen year-old young man with a natural proclivity to help and support others. While he would prefer to avoid bloodshed and works to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he maintains a strong resolve to see peace return to Elibe. He is a talented tactician in his own right, and unusually is perceptive and cunning for his age: he is able to trick a traitorous vassal in his group into exposing himself, and he reacts calmly and tactically to surprises and disturbing news.

According to one of his allies, Roy is somewhat socially awkward, and he is quite oblivious to the obvious feelings that some of the women in his army develop for him and he even feels very uncomfortable and unpleasant with the forwardness of one of them. Roy is similar to Marth with respect to both characterization and gameplay role, and is the only character in The Binding Blade to be of the character class. As the commander of his army, it is necessary for Roy to seize castles and thrones held by enemy armies to complete chapters and progress in his quest, but if he is defeated in battle, the game is over and the player must restart from their last save point.

Intelligent Systems followed up The Binding Blade with a prequel set twenty years prior to Roy's adventures in Elibe:  (originally released outside Japan simply as "Fire Emblem"), the franchise's seventh installment and the first internationally-released one. The game stars Roy's father Eliwood, whose somewhat older resemblance to Roy was meant to appeal to players of Melee; Roy himself appears as a five-year-old child in the game's epilogue. The game's story is laid out with ten introductory chapters starring one of Eliwood's allies, Lyn, meant to introduce players to the Fire Emblem style of tactical play, with the other 20+ chapters containing the main story. Though it is a prequel, The Blazing Blade is structured so that no knowledge of The Binding Blade is required to understand its story.

Although he did not appear in a new game for nine years after The Blazing Blade, Roy started making regular appearances with Marth and Ike in various Fire Emblem crossovers and spinoffs in 2012 when he appeared as a bonus SpotPass and DLC in . In 2017, Roy's design was updated to reflect his modernized appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4, combining elements from The Binding Blade and Awakening: ' featured him as a summonable hero (with his first variant more closely resembling his Super Smash Bros. 4 design instead of his original design from The Binding Blade), debuting Ray Chase as his English voice actor, and ' allows players to summon an illusory phantom of Roy using his Super Smash Bros. amiibo. Roy has also made frequent appearances in the  trading card game from 2016 up until its discontinuation in 2020. Most recently,  features Roy as one of the game's numerous Emblems, ethereal clones of protagonists from various other Fire Emblem games who dwell within special rings.

As a playable character
Roy makes his Super Smash Bros. series debut (and by extension, his debut in any game) as an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He can be unlocked in two ways: beating either or  as  on any difficulty, or playing 900 Versus Mode matches. Due to the Fire Emblem series being exclusive to Japan at the time, Roy is voiced by in both the Japanese and Western releases.

According to Super Smash Bros. series creator Masahiro Sakurai, he originally wanted as a playable character in SSB because of his desire for representation of both the Fire Emblem series and the swordsman archetype. Due to not making this deadline, Sakurai decided that Melee would include Marth and the then-upcoming Fire Emblem protagonist Roy.

In regard to Roy, Sakurai explained that his inclusion as Marth's clone was because Roy's game, , was nearing the end of its development during the development of Melee. Although The Binding Blade was originally scheduled to be released prior to Melee, its release was delayed to 2002, thus resulting in Roy's debut occurring outside of his home series.

Although Sakurai consistently pushed to keep Marth within both the Japanese and Western releases of Melee, internal discussions and disputes lead to him and Nintendo of America holding meetings to discuss Roy's status within the Western release. Despite Sakurai being willing to remove Roy from the Western release, Nintendo of America decided to retain both characters; in regard to Roy, it was because they said, according to Sakurai, "He'll be fun, so let's leave him as is." Sakurai also said the inclusion of Marth and Roy lead to a "reciprocal relationship" in that Melee benefited from the fanbase's perception of them as fun characters, while the Fire Emblem series in turn garnered a much larger audience thanks to their inclusion.

Roy wields the (referred to as the Sword of Seals in Melee), which is used for almost every one of his moves, aside from his grabs and throws. In contrast to Marth's, the Binding Blade is most powerful near its hilt instead of at its tip. True to its depiction in The Binding Blade, it also has a multitude of flame-based attacks. Roy's neutral special move, Flare Blade, is a chargeable sword strike akin to Marth's Shield Breaker. However, it can be charged up to 5 seconds, after which it will unleash an explosion powerful enough to one-hit KO virtually any opponent, although Roy receives 10% recoil damage as a side effect.

Roy's side special move, Double-Edge Dance, functions like Marth's Dancing Blade in that it is a series of up to four sword slashes determined by the number of times the special button is pressed and which direction the control stick is pressed during each swipe. Roy's up special move, Blazer, deals more damage, hits multiple times and emits flames compared to Marth's Dolphin Slash, yet it is also slower. Lastly, Roy's down special move, Counter, functions similarly to Marth's: it has a larger damage multiplier (1.5×) and is thus capable of easily KOing opponents who use a sufficiently strong attack, yet it has more start-up, a shorter duration, and a sourspot.

Due to being a clone of Marth, Roy's mobility and attack style are largely similar, yet their specifications are different. Roy has a relatively fast dashing speed, a fast and long dash-dance, and a very fast falling speed; altogether, these make his short hop aerials almost as proficient as Marth's. Double-Edge Dance is very useful in battle, thanks to its various combo routes. Roy's forward smash and Flare Blade are powerful KOing options and even decent at edge-guarding, while his grab range is deceptively long like Marth's. However, Roy is held back by a slew of flaws. Although he shares Marth's weaknesses of an unimpressive recovery and lack of a projectile, Marth overwhelmingly outclasses him because of Roy's glaring susceptibility to combos and juggles, overall low damage output, and the Binding Blade's notoriously ineffective hitboxes.

Roy and Marth were a primary subject of the "tier wars" at GameFAQs that lasted between 2003 and 2004, determining which among these two very similar fighters was the better character, while Marth ultimately won by a very large margin. This has been reflected in his ranking of 21st out of 26 on the current tier list, which places him in the D tier and renders him a low tier character. Despite being universally considered an inferior clone of Marth, Roy developed a loyal fanbase nonetheless.

Trophies
In line with the other playable characters, Roy as a playable character is featured on three trophies: a normal trophy acquired by beating the Classic Mode with Roy on any difficulty, and Smash Red and Smash Blue trophies are won by beating the Adventure and All-Star Modes, respectively.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Roy is one of the five playable characters in Melee who did not return as a playable character in Brawl. His only appearance in the game is as a sticker of his official artwork from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Roy is also referenced in the title of "Winning Road - Roy's Hope", a theme from his game that can be played on Castle Siege.

Unfinished data
While Roy does not appear as a playable character in Brawl, data of what appears to be the character has been uncovered through hacking as ef_roy.pac., alongside Dr. Mario and Mewtwo. The exact reason why the data is included is unknown, though it is commonly believed that Roy was planned to be included as a playable character before being cut for unknown reasons. Of particular note is that the data for Roy includes his own unused fanfare, as "snd_bgm_Z39_FROY", further indicating that he was intended to be playable in Brawl.

As a playable character
Although Roy did not return as a playable character in the base version of Super Smash Bros. 4, the rearranged song "Winning Road - Roy's Hope" from The Binding Blade returns from Brawl for.

Due to data mining of update 1.0.6, Roy's presence as a playable character within the game's files was leaked in mid-April 2015. He was then made available as downloadable content on June 14th, 2015 alongside and. Jun Fukuyama reprises his role as Roy's voice actor via new lines that mimic his lines in Melee.

In the transition to SSB4, Roy underwent a considerable overhaul, both aesthetically and mechanically. Due to Masahiro Sakurai's desire to modernize Roy's design, his attire became a combination of his design from The Binding Blade and his design from . In reference to SSB4's co-lead developer Bandai Namco, Sakurai jokingly referred to this updated design as having "a sort of Tales-ish appearance."

Due to acknowledging Marth's superiority to Roy in Melee, Sakurai sought to modify Roy's attributes and moveset. To this end, several of Roy's animations now consist of him swinging the Binding Blade in a reverse grip, while the Binding Blade itself is drastically stronger. In addition, Roy's already excellent dashing speed is even faster, and unlike in Melee, he now boasts an extremely fast air speed. Due to these changes, Roy was effectively de-cloned into a semi-clone of Marth.

Roy also received his own Final Smash; in his case, it is Critical Hit. Unlike and 's versions, however, Roy performs it similarly to his  animation in The Binding Blade: he remains stationary as he swings the Binding Blade in a circular motion, then performs a downward slash to generate a powerful explosion.

Thanks to his increased overall damage output, modified frame data, and his updated moves being much stronger than his previous ones, Roy is much more capable at dealing damage and KOing. Roy was also buffed indirectly via gameplay changes: the changes to hitstun canceling grant his modified down throw respectable combo potential, the changes to shield mechanics significantly improve his sweetspots' safety on shield, and rage supplements his already impressive power.

However, the Binding Blade's inverse tipper mechanic still requires Roy to get dangerously close to opponents to strike with the sword's sweetspot, which is counter-intuitive for a swordsman. Aside from this, Roy also received direct and indirect nerfs: his reworked animations decreased the ranges on some moves, while the weakening of dash-dancing and the removal of both wavedashing and L-canceling weakened his approach.

Due to achieving decent results in spite of below-average representation, Roy is ranked 41st out of 54 on the current tier list. This places him in the E tier, and renders him a mid-tier character.

As an alternate costume
has a new alternate costume based on Roy's design in The Binding Blade.

As a playable character
Roy returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Like his fellow Fire Emblem fighter, Roy is now fully voiced in English outside of the Japanese version, with Ray Chase reprising his role from .

Presumably due to his mid tier status in Super Smash Bros. 4, Roy has been significantly buffed in the transition to Ultimate. He benefits immensely from universal changes, arguably more so than any other fighter: the standardization of 3 frame jumpsquats and gerenal reduction of landing lag greatly improve the utility of his powerful aerial attacks, while the return of dash dancing and expanded utility of dash canceling does much the same for his strong grounded attacks. The Binding Blade's hilt sweetspot is also much larger, his attacks' already high knockback has increased even further, and his movement and frame data are both faster. Overall, these changes collectively improved Roy's tournament representation and results to a significant degree, with most players agreeing that he has become a high tier fighter, where he ranks 8th out of 82 on the tier list.

Trivia

 * Roy's official artwork pose for both Melee and SSB4 resembles his neutral pose as a when wielding the  in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
 * Due to Melee launching before Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Roy is one of two characters who can claim a  game as their debut game. The other is Mr. Game & Watch, who is a composite of older Game & Watch characters with original elements added.
 * Roy is the only character whose moveset is based on Marth's that does not wield a variation of the, and the only one to not have any connection to Marth in the Fire Emblem games.
 * Roy is also the only character to transition from a clone of a character to the basis of a clone.
 * Roy's crowd cheer, "Roy's our boy!", has become popular among Super Smash Bros. fans, and is often used as a meme. The cheer's popularity was even touched upon in , in which the Brave Lion variant of Roy says it as one of his voice clips.
 * Prior to Ultimate, Roy, Toon Link and Young Link were the only swordsmen in the Super Smash Bros. series whose swords consistently produced a punch/kick sound effect instead of a slashing sound effect for the majority of their moves.
 * Roy and Lucas are the only two fighters whose intended debut games have not been released outside of Japan. Additionally, they both come from games that had long development cycles and transitioned from the Nintendo 64 to the Game Boy Advance.
 * Roy's English voice actor, Ray Chase, has said in interviews that Roy was one of his mains (the other being Dr. Mario) in previous Super Smash Bros. games before he was casted in the role.
 * Roy is currently the only fighter available as DLC at any point to lack a projectile attack.
 * As of SSB4, Roy shares his name with Roy Koopa, another playable character, making it the only repeated name in the Super Smash Bros. roster. However, Roy Koopa is an alternate character that shares a slot with Bowser Jr. instead of being a full-fledged character.
 * Owing to this, both of them are seen together in official screenshots several times, such as the Congratulations screen of Roy's Classic Mode route in Ultimate.
 * Roy, Pit, and Palutena are the only characters who received a modernized redesign in the Super Smash Bros. series that would be later featured in their respective home series.
 * In the Palutena's Guidance about Roy, Viridi says that Roy spends his days in Ostia as a noble while Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade states that he does so in Pherae.