Roy

For the Metal Gear character, see Roy Campbell. For Roy's fighter info, see Roy (SSBM).

Roy
Roy File:FireEmblemSymbol.png Official artwork of Roy from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
Universe	Fire Emblem
Debut	Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001), Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (2002)
Smash Bros. appearances	Melee Brawl SSB4 Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Fire Emblem: Awakening (2012)
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Elibe
Designed by	Eiji Kaneda
Voice actor	Jun Fukuyama
Article on Fire Emblem Wiki	Roy

Roy (ロイ Roi) is the protagonist of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the sixth game in the Fire Emblem series of tactical role-playing games. Roy was included in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a playable character for the purpose of "previewing" the sixth game, which was released in Japan after Melee, making him the only character thus far in the Smash series to be included for that purpose. His appearance in Melee along with another Fire Emblem series character, Marth, increased global interest in the general franchise, prompting the series to be released internationally from installment seven onwards.

Character description

While HAL Laboratory obliged to include Marth as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee by popular Japanese demand, the sixth installment of Intelligent Systems' long-running Fire Emblem fantasy tactical-RPG series, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, was nearing the end of its development. Nintendo decided to include that game's main character, Roy, as a playable character in addition to Marth to serve as a preview of the game for Japanese audiences, making Roy the only character in the Smash series to be featured for that purpose. It was a successful ploy to Japanese audiences for both Melee and The Binding Blade, but since this involved a game franchise never distributed outside of Japan beforehand, Nintendo was wary of keeping the unfamiliar fantasy swordsmen in Melee in its North American and European releases, but decided to keep them in based on the approval of western gamers. Roy and Marth, as new and original anime-inspired characters with rather effective fighting abilities, became popular enough in Melee that the Fire Emblem franchise gained international attention from the gaming community.

Intelligent Systems followed up with the franchise's seventh installment, known in Japan as Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword but whose North American version is simply titled "Fire Emblem", designed with the international scene in mind rather than Japanese exclusivity. To this end they made it a prequel to The Binding Blade, set in the same Fire Emblem universe and chronology twenty years before Roy's quest and starring Roy's father Eliwood, whose somewhat older resemblance to Roy was meant to appeal to players of Melee. 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, and the other 20+ chapters are the main game itself. Blazing Sword's story is also structured so that knowledge of The Binding Blade is not required, and if the sixth game were played after the seventh, it would feel like a direct continuation.

Roy, in the best tradition of Fire Emblem protagonists, is an upstanding and thoughtful fifteen year-old young man in The Binding Blade with a natural proclivity to help and support others, and while he would prefer to avoid blood-shed, he maintains a strong resolve to see peace return to the continent of Elibe, the medieval high-fantasy setting of both games. Unlike most young protagonists, however, he is perceptive and cunning for his age, such as tricking a traitorous vassal in his group into exposing himself, and he often reacts calmly and tactically to disturbing news. Roy is also quite oblivious to the obvious feelings that some of the women in his army develop for him. Also steeped in series tradition is that his in-game unit is the only one belonging to the Lord character class, giving him initially shaky base stats but allowing him to become a high-performance unit by the game's end. He has no particular flaws apart from his late promotion, but his defenses are somewhat low.

Roy is studying in the province of Ostia, away from his home province of Pherae, both of which are in the nation of Lycia, when the militant nation of Bern begins to conquer various other nations on the continent; as his father 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, Zephiel, who displays a mysterious thirst for world domination. Zephiel's errant younger sister, Princess Guinevere, 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, and it is in part this encounter that will eventually lead him on a journey across Elibe to save the continent from what could end up being a war with powerful dragons from a different dimension. He is ultimately successful in his endeavors when he defeats Zephiel. However, if all the legendary weapons of Elibe were gathered by meeting certain conditions ingame, the weapons would start glowing and pointing toward the location of the Demon Dragon, Idenn, the game's true final boss. A few extra chapters take place which results in the defeat of Idenn. Afterward, depending on certain ingame factors, different characters experience slightly different endings, but generally peace returns to Elibe and everyone lives happily ever after, with various rebuilding of respective countries.

After nine years of absence, Roy eventually reappeared as a bonus character in the Nintendo 3DS game Fire Emblem: Awakening, available in two forms: as free SpotPass content using his old Binding Blade artwork, and as paid DLC featuring new artwork by a guest artist. Neither version has any impact on the game's main story.

Binding Blade

The Binding Blade, Roy's main weapon in The Binding Blade for the Game Boy Advance and Melee.

The Binding Blade, widely known as the Sword of Seals in the context of Super Smash Bros. Melee, is Roy's signature and ultimate sword in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, and is the weapon he wields in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Within his game of origin, the Binding Blade was the second sword wielded by the legendary Hartmut of the Eight Generals, the founder of the militant nation of Bern in Elibe. This particular blade is capable of reacting to the emotions and feelings of the one wielding it, as well as generating fire. Although it doesn't do so in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Binding Blade is capable of healing the wielder and unleashing long-range attacks using the fire it generates. It was used to seal away the Demon Dragon Idenn and end the Scouring, a war in which humans fought and exiled dragons to another dimension.

It is not until late in the game (Chapter 22) that the Binding Blade becomes available. At this point, the weapon is awakened by the Fire Emblem and reacts to Roy, promoting him into a Great Lord. This weapon can attack up to twenty times (both directly and indirectly) before breaking and can be used as an item to heal Roy. In addition to this, it also has increased effectiveness against all dragon-type units (wyvern riders and manaketes).

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

As a Playable Fighter

Roy's appearance in Melee.

Roy makes his Smash-series debut (and by extension, his debut in any game) as an unlockable character in Melee. He can be battled to be unlocked one of two ways: beating either Classic or Adventure as Marth on any difficulty, or playing 900 Vs. mode matches.

Roy fights with his sword, the Sword of Seals, and his special moves all involve the sword's fiery powers. The Sword of Seals is Roy's blade of choice, and is used in most of his attacks, excluding grabs and throws. In contrast to Marth's Falchion, the Sword of Seals is most powerful near the center of the blade rather than the tip, and has a multitude of fire-based attacks. His neutral special move, the Flare Blade, is a chargeable sword strike like Marth's Shield Breaker, but it can be charged for up to five full seconds, after which it will unleash an explosive attack so powerful that many opponents would be instantly KO'd, and Roy receives 10% damage as a side effect. His side special move, the Double-Edge Dance (DED), is a series of up to four sword slashes determined by the number of times B is pressed and which direction the control stick is pressed during each swipe, like Marth's Dancing Blade. Roy's up special move, Blazer, is a slower, more damaging, fire-based version of Marth's Dolphin Slash, and his down special, Counter, operates similarly to Marth's Counter, being a bit harder to time while having potentially higher or lower damage and knockback; the retaliatory sword swipe's power and knockback is based on those of the opponent's attack, multiplied by 1.5, making it very quick at KOing a character like Ganondorf using his Warlock Punch.

Roy is a clone of Marth in that they feature pretty much the same movement and attack style, but their specifications are different. Roy seems at first to be a slower and stronger version of Marth, but he is actually almost the opposite; he has a relatively fast dash, a fast and long dash dance, and a fast fall that gives speed to his short hop aerials almost as well as Marth, and his Double-Edge Dance is very useful in battle, but his moves actually do rather low damage, and it is hard to land his primary KO move, his forward smash. It has been determined that Marth can KO better with his swordplay, which has a sweet spot on the tip of the sword, while Roy's sweet spot is more in the middle. Roy's forward smash and Flare Blade are decent at edge-guarding, and Roy has a great grab range like Marth and has a potentially effective move in his Counter, but it is his lack of a projectile, short recovery, and easiness to be juggled and combo'd, added with his low general damage, that ultimately make Marth the better fighter.

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 were the better character, and in the end Marth won out over Roy by a very large margin as demonstrated by the current tier list. Today Roy is considered an inferior clone of Marth in Melee, but he has 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 beating the Adventure and All-Star modes, respectively. His classic mode trophy reads as follows:

Roy

The son of the lord of Pharae Principality, Roy was studying in Ostia when the Kingdom of Bern invaded League of Lycia. His father fell ill at this time, so Roy assumed lordship of Pharae's armies. After his fateful meeting with the Princess Guinevere, his destiny became inextricably linked with the fate of the entire continent.

• Fire Emblem (Japan Only)

• 

  Roy [Classic Mode] trophy

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  Roy [Smash, Adventure Mode] trophy

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  Roy [Smash, All-Star Mode] trophy

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, an included theme from his game that can play during the Castle Siege stage.

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. 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.

Trivia

• Roy is the only character whose Smash Bros. appearance predates his first appearance in a non-Smash Bros. game. (Melee was released in 2001, while his game was released in 2002.)
• In addition to making a guest appearance in Fire Emblem: Awakening, a DLC in the game, aptly named Smash Brethren, references Roy's and Ike's involvement in the Smash Bros. series.