Roy (SSBM)

Roy in Super Smash Bros. Melee
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BrownBruisedKodiakbear-size_restricted.gif
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	D (21) (North America) G (22) (Europe)

Roy (ロイ, Roy) is a unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He is a clone of Marth, differentiated primarily by being a complete and utter garbage character. He is voiced by Jun Fukuyama.

He is well-known for being one of the few low-tiered characters to not keel over and die at the mere sight of Fox, Falco, and other fastfallers, having somewhat of a fighting chance against them. That is among Roy's only solaces as he takes his uncontested title of "Melee's #1 Boy" all the way down to the D tier of the Melee tier list, at #21 because that's how many times he has to win the neutral game to KO his opponent. He has almost no redeeming qualities, with Roy's rare ridiculous reach being readily offset by the rueful raw power of his ranged hitboxes, resulting in Roy being royally ravaged by the remainder of the cast, then relegated to rotting offstage as they ruin his rocky recovery. Roy players also cannot do anything against floaty characters, since none of the hitboxes that he can actually hit floaties with can KO even at 999%. Roy professionals agree that the optimal line of play in those matchups is to put down the controller and cry while reevaluating your life choices that you chose to play such a miserable character competitively in a 20-year old party game.

All in all, Roy is a terrible character, and you would have to be inzain to ever consider using him in any domain with competent Melee players. He is overall a character that should never be tested in modern competitive play.

All of this being said, Roy is an excellent pick on Great Bay, being able to act as an effective lifeguard with his access to the highest quality pool noodles known to the Nintendo universe.

How to unlock

Don't.

(But if you enjoy pain, you can complete either Classic or Adventure Mode as Marth without using a continue, or play 900 VS. matches, where you will then find Roy on Temple, ready to be circle camped.)

Attributes

Overall, Roy does not fall into any specific fighter archetype; it is difficult to find the appropriate diction to describe his attributes in a succinct way. He has a slew of weak attacks, with slightly inferior movement to Marth and a faster falling speed that makes him combo food for the majority of the cast, making him absolute suffering to play. With this in mind, perhaps the best and most encyclopedic way to describe Roy's prowess in Melee is "pain".

Among Roy's primary strengths is the overall power in his forward smash. Roy's forward smash is a fast attack and is his only good KO move. Additionally, Roy has a powerful but laggy forward smash which does not have multi-hit properties. Roy's forward smash is also powerful; his forward smash is a deadly edgeguard tactic, almost guaranteeing a one-hit KO if fully or almost fully improperly DIed. His forward smash naturally combos into nothing and can act as a reliable finisher, and his forward smash scales in power the more it is charged. Against smash attacks, Roy's forward smash can quickly become his most infuriating move; its noob killing properties also makes it useful when the opponent is bad.

Roy also has a decent ground-based approach, if you expand the definition for a "good approach" to include "slapping the opponent with garbage hitboxes". Roy boasts the Binding Blade, named aptly because its properties bind Roy's competitive career to the abyss of non-viability. To its credit, it is indeed a disjoint, albeit one that brings you more pain than your opponent. A combination of low-lag, fast aerials and a very high falling speed gives Roy a SHFFL that looks threatening but actually isn't. Roy's down tilt also sends opponents directly upward, with decent hitstun, which surprisingly gives Roy some way to not lose to fastfallers like Fox and Falco 30:70, but rather 35:65 instead, a truly massive improvement. He also possesses Marth's dashback and dash dance, and most of his grab range, which can make bad space animal players very angry.

Roy, however, is complete and utter garbage everywhere else, to the dismay of all boys around the world. The sweetspot placement on his sword is atrocious, and the power of his sourspotted attacks at the tip is so mindblowingly weak that they effectively heal the opponent when struck, making him effectively an inverse Pichu (with said character's effective threat range as well). Aside from his many forward smashes, Roy has no other good KO moves, with his sourspotted aerials not even being able to KO Jigglypuff at 999%. His combo game is similarly crap on all non-fastfallers; it is common knowledge in the competitive Melee community that any Roy who lands a string of more than 2 hits on a floaty is playing on a hacked game with a modded controller. His down aerial is so laggy and horrible, that he holds the dubious distinction of being one of the only characters where landing a successful Ken Combo kills him instead of the opponent, singlehandedly bringing a whole new meaning to the term "zero-to-death".

Roy's fast falling speed and light weight make him a punching bag for any good character, with the only reason why he isn't featured in more combo videos being that no one would ever subject themselves to the torment of playing Melee Roy. If you get hit or launched into the air as Roy even once, you might as well put your controller down, crawl into the corner and sulk, and let your opponent have all the fun they want. You certainly aren't going to have any, so why spread more negativity into the world? It's not like you'll be able to recover anyway, with Roy's up special, called the Blazer because you would have to be stoned to think that you could ever get back onto the stage with that move.

Roy is not a character for the faint of heart. He isn't even a character for the most resilient of souls. The amount of pain that Roy brings to his player is simply unbearable; not even the most evil of human beings on planet Earth would subject their worst enemies to the cruel fate of playing Melee Roy competitively. Roy is not our boy. Roy is f***ing bad.

Differences from Marth

Roy is Marth if Marth were reduced to his dash dance and grab; ergo, crap. His moves might as well be nonexistent compared to his, and he frequently KOs himself attempting any sort of combo extension or edgeguard. There is no reason to use him at all when Marth exists.

To Roy's credit, he does have some advantages. Roy is such a bad character that picking him in a serious competitive match might make your opponent forfeit out of pure shock. His Blazer, when reversed, is also capable of OHKO'ing bad floaty players who somehow leave themselves in a position to get hit by Roy, which has been deemed impossible even by the most casual of smashers.

However, these advantages are shockingly not enough to alleviate his significant weaknesses, and it results in him having far less successful tournament results and a much smaller playerbase in comparison to Marth.

Aesthetics

• Roy's idle animation, taunt and victory animations are different from Marth's.

Attributes

• Roy's sweetspot is placed at the hilt of his blade, meaning he fights at close range in order to be most efficient. Roy's sweetspot is larger than Marth's, but Marth can space the tipper sweetspot of his sword for maximum safety and damage.
• Some of Roy's attacks use the flame effect.
• Roy is lighter than Marth (NTSC 87 → 85). It hinders his survivability slightly but makes him less susceptible to waveshine followups from Fox as he is knocked down by the shine.
• Roy is shorter than Marth. This shortens his hurtbox, making him harder to hit, but also slightly reduces the range in his attacks.
  • Due to his shorter height, Roy can grab smaller characters such as Jigglypuff and Kirby while they are crouching with his standing grab, unlike Marth.
• Roy's air speed is slightly faster than Marth (PAL 0.85 → 0.9).
• Roy's jumpsquat is one frame later than Marth's (frame 4 → frame 5). Not only does this mean catching opponents by surprise with aerials is slightly harder for Roy, but it also makes his wavedash slightly less useful than that of Marth.
• Roy's wavedash is shorter than Marth's.
• Roy walks (1.6 → 1.2) and dashes (1.8 → 1.61) noticeably slower than Marth, and his dash-dance window is smaller as a result of his slower dash speed.
• Roy's falling speed is higher (2.2 → 2.4), causing him to have less vertical knockback than Marth, despite Marth remaining heavier than Roy, and makes his SHFFL faster than Marth's. However, his increased falling speed makes him much easier to combo, worsens his recovery, and means that he is usually unable to go off-stage for edgeguards or gimps, hindering his ability to close out stocks at low percentages.
• Roy's gravity is higher (0.085 → 0.114).
  • As a result, Roy's jumps are lower than Marth.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack only has a single hit.
  • It is incapable of being buffered.
  • It deals less damage overall (4%/6% → 3%/5%/6%).
  • The sourspot has much less knockback (20 base/50 growth → 5/60) than the second hit of Marth's.
  • It has a slower animation than both hits from Marth, making it worse for edgeguarding characters with linear recoveries, such as Fox or Falco.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a longer duration (4 frames → 5).
  • It has more startup (frame 7 → 9), with more ending lag.
  • It deals less damage (9%/13% → 7%/10%/12%).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has more startup (frame 6 → 7) and much more ending lag (frame 32 → 40).
  • It has a smaller hitbox.
  • It deals less damage (8%/9%/12% (early)/9%/10%/13% (clean) → 6%/8%/9%/10%).
  • It has much less base knockback (50/40/30 → 35/20), making it drastically inferior for combos and KOing.
• Down tilt:
  • Instead of having horizontal knockback, Roy's down tilt has vertical knockback (30° → 80°), which allows it to leads into many combo setups, especially on fast fallers. In exchange, this makes Roy's down tilt much less useful for neutral resets and edgeguards against the rest of the cast.
  • The sweetspots deal more damage (9%/10% → 10%/12%) and have more base knockback (50/40/25/20 → 90/70).
  • It has more startup (frame 7 → 8).
  • The sourspot deals less damage (8% → 6%).
• Dash attack:
  • The sourspot of Roy's dash attack deals less damage (9%/11% → 6%).
  • The move's animation is much slower, but with no change in hitbox timings, leading to an infamously terrible hitbox placement.[1]
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash's sweetspot is much larger.
  • It has more startup with a shorter duration (frame 10-13 → 12-14) and more ending lag (frame 48 → 54).
  • All of its hitboxes also deal less knockback, with his sourspot in particular dealing significantly less knockback (60 base/70 growth → 30/65) and his sweetspot having slightly less knockback growth (70 → 65).
  • The sourspot deals 2% less damage (14% → 12%).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash uses the flame effect.
  • Up smash has a longer duration (4 frames → 10).
  • It can serve as an unconventional spike if hit with the tip of Roy's sword on the second, third, and fourth hits.
  • It deals more damage than Marth's sourspots, but less than his sweetspots (8%/15%/18% → 16.56%).
    • Overall, it does more damage consistently.
  • It deals more knockback without sourspots (196 set knockback/30/80 base/100/80 growth → 73 base/90 growth).
  • It has more startup (frame 13 → 15).
  • As it is a multi-hit move, it has the possibility of being SDIed before connecting with the final hit.
  • It has smaller hitboxes.
• Down smash:
  • The front hit of down smash deals more damage (16%/11% → 21%/14%).
  • Both hits of down smash have higher startup (first hit: frame 5 → frame 6, second hit: frame 20 → 23).
  • It has more ending lag (frame 62 → 72).
  • The sourspot of the back hit also deals less damage (11% → 8%).
  • Both hits of the move deal drastically less knockback (front hit: 16/20/70 base/72/100 growth → 15/42 base/100/70 growth, back hit: 15/30/70 base/72/100 growth → 15/42 base/68/100 growth) than Marth's.

Aerial attacks

• Except for back aerial and down aerial, all aerials have more landing lag (15 frames → 20 (neutral aerial), 15 frames → 20 (forward aerial), 15 frames → 18 (up aerial)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • It has more startup on both hits (6-7 (hit 1) 15-21 (hit 2) → 7-8 (hit 1) 17-20 (hit 2) and slightly more ending lag (frame 49 → 50).
  • The second hit also deals less damage (10% → 8%/6%).
• Forward aerial:
  • It consistently sends opponents at a Sakurai angle unlike Marth (67°/361° → 361°).
  • It has more start-up with a shorter duration (frame 4-7 → 5-7) and more ending lag (FAF 30 → 35).
  • It deals considerably less damage (13%/10%9% → 8%/5%), and has significantly less base knockback (42/30/20 → 30/10).
• Back aerial:
  • It has more startup with a shorter duration (frame 7-11 → 8-10) and much more ending lag (frame 32 → 43) with no difference in animation, leading to an unfortunate hitbox placement.
  • It deals moderately less damage (13%/10%/9% → 9%/6%), and the sourspot has much less base knockback (30/25/10 → 10).
• Up aerial:
  • It has a longer duration (frame 5-8 → 5-10).
  • It deals moderately less damage (13%/10%/9% → 9%/6%).
  • It has much less base knockback (40/30/20/18 → 20/10).
• Down aerial:
  • The sourspots have more base knockback (40/30 → 40).
  • It is considerably more difficult to sweetspot with (the sweetspot is located around Roy's hand, rather than the tip of his sword as with Marth).
  • It has more start-up (frame 6 → 7), and much more ending lag.
  • It deals less damage (13%/10%/9% → 9%/6%), and its sweetspot is a meteor smash instead of a spike (NTSC 290° → 270°), meaning it can be meteor canceled.

Grabs and throws

• Grab range is slightly shorter, but is still one of the farthest reaching non-tether grabs in the game.
• All of Roy's throws deal 1% more damage (forward/back/up throw: 4% → 5%, down throw: 5% → 6%).
• Roy's forward throw sends opponents at a slightly lower angle (50° → 45°).
• Roy's back throw has less knockback growth (60 → 45). This improves its follow-up potential, but hinders its ability to set-up edgeguards at higher percents.
• Roy's up throw sends opponents at a different angle (93° → 97°).
• Roy's down throw has more knockback growth (50 → 60) and sends opponents at a slightly higher angle than Marth's (135° → 120°), hindering its ability to follow-up and tech-chase.

Special moves

• Flare Blade:
  • Flare Blade has a flame effect, and near the end of charging it, Roy glows white and the screen shakes violently.
  • A fully charged Flare Blade has to be charged for a longer period.
  • It deals considerably more knockback than Marth's Shield Breaker (30/34/40 base/100 growth → 40/110 (uncharged)/50/83 (fully charged).
  • When fully charged, Flare Blade also deals drastically more damage than Shield Breaker (28% → 50%), resulting in a OHKO on hit.
  • Flare Blade deals 10% recoil damage to Roy when fully charged.
  • An uncharged Flare Blade also deals less damage than an uncharged Shield Breaker (7% → 6%).
  • The move deals drastically less shield damage (uncharged:30/38 → 1, fully charged: 60 → 30).
• Double-Edge Dance:
  • Double-Edge Dance has sourspots, unlike Dancing Blade. However, the sourspots range from dealing more or less damage than Dancing Blade's variations, depending on the angle. Most of Double-Edge Dance's hits also have different knockback (second (forward): 16 base/100 growth → 20/40 base/60/35 growth, second (upwards): 30/60/70/85 base/40 growth → 50/30, fourth (downward final hit): 20 base/130 growth → 30/110) and angle (first: 85°/96°/80°/76° → 96°/80°/60°/85°, second (forward): 105°/80°/70°/50° → 80°/56°/35°/105°, second (upwards): 90°/85°/70° → 96°, third (upwards): 80° → 280°/270°/60°, third (downward): 270° → 90°/75°/90° (multi-hits)/64° (final hit), fourth (upwards): 80° → 40°) properties compared to Dancing Blade's variations. The third hit upwards of Double-Edge Dance also meteor smashes instead of the third hit downwards like Dancing Blade.
  • Double-Edge Dance has normal priority as opposed to transcendent priority unlike Dancing Blade, allowing it to cancel projectiles. The first hit, all angles of the second hit, third hit inputted upwards, and fourth hit inputted upwards of Double-Edge Dance deal more damage than Dancing Blade's variations (first: 4% → 5%/4%, second (all angles): 5% → 6%/4%, third: 6% → 10%/8%, fourth: 10% → 13%/10%), and the fourth hit inputed forward deals much more knockback (15 base/120 growth → 35/135). The first hit also has less base knockback than Dancing Blade's (55 → 50/40), allowing it to connect better with the second hits.
  • Double-Edge Dance's third hit inputted forwards has more base knockback, but less knockback growth (0 base/160 growth → 50/110) than that of Dancing Blade's variation. This makes it overall weaker than Dancing Blade's variation at higher percentages, while also making it more difficult to combo into the fourth hits at lower percentages. The third hit inputted downward also has more startup (frame 13 → 14), more ending lag, and is a multi-hitting move, making it weaker overall despite the final hit having more base knockback (50 → 70), and meaning it can be SDI'd before it connects with the final hit due to it being a multi-hit. The third hit inputted forward and downward and the fourth hit inputted forward also deal less damage (third (forward): 10% → 10%/8%, third (downward): 12% → 11.51% (due to how stale-move negation works on multi-hit moves), fourth: 14% → 13%/10%) and the fourth hit inputted upwards has much less base knockback than Dancing Blade's variation (40 → 22). The third hit inputted upward's meteor smash is also overall weaker than Dancing Blade's third hit inputted downward's meteor smash (50 base/100 growth → 80/36 base/60/40 growth).
  • All three finishers use the flame effect, in addition to the downward-angled third hit.
• Blazer:
  • It uses the flame effect.
  • Blazer deals slightly more damage (13%/10%/7%/6% → 13.18%).
  • It can be angled forward for better horizontal recovery.
  • It has a longer duration (6 frames → 13).
  • It has slightly less landing lag than Dolphin Slash (34 frames → 30).
  • Its first hit has very strong set knockback (200 set knockback), allowing it to KO floaty characters like Jigglypuff at 0% on certain stages.
  • It has more startup (frame 5 → 9).
  • It deals drastically less knockback (80/60/20 base/70/90 growth → 0/10 base/100 set knockback/100 growth).
  • It covers less vertical distance.
  • It can be SDIed out of due to its multihit nature.
• Counter:
  • Roy's Counter pose is slightly different. A successful counter uses the flame effect.
  • Roy's Counter does 1.5x the damage of the countered move, as opposed to Marth's dealing a flat 7%, making it a powerful KO move when used against strong attacks (such as Falcon Punch, Warlock Punch, or a charged smash attack).
  • The counter has more startup with a much shorter duration (frame 5-29 → 8-20).
  • It also deals less knockback with an added sourspot (90 base/35 growth → 30 base/90/70 growth), making it much weaker at low percents if it counters a move that deals 4.6% or less.
  • Roy has two unique voice clips when he successfully uses Counter instead of three like Marth's. Roy may either say "今だ!" ("Now!") or "そこ!" ("There!").

Moveset

For a gallery of Roy's hitboxes, see here.

Roy's aerial attacks

A demonstration of the spike hitbox of Roy's up smash.

All of Roy's attacks are at their strongest when they hit with the center of the Binding Blade; if an attack hits with both the sourspot and sweetspot hitboxes, then the sweetspot usually takes priority but sometimes sourspots do occur.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			5% (blade), 3% (tip), 6% (body)	Identical to Marth's; he slashes in front of himself. However, Roy only slashes once, and at a slower rate than Marth. Additionally, Roy's version is devoid of buffer, meaning the player has to press the attack button one at a time instead of mashing it.
Forward tilt			10% (blade), 7% (tip), 12% (body)	A fast upward swipe with the Binding Blade while leaning forward. Deals more damage if the opponent is closer to Roy. Can KO at high percentages or when the blast line is close by.
Up tilt			Clean: 8% (blade & arm), 6% (tip), 10% (body) Late: 8% (blade & arm), 6% (tip), 10% (body)	Swings his sword in a large arc above his head. Despite generally covering Roy's hurtboxes, it is less powerful and has less combo potential than Marth's.
Down tilt			10% (blade), 6% (tip), 12% (body)	A sword poke to the ground. Has longer hitstun than most of Roy's other attacks, and also sends opponents upward, making it a good combo starter overall. Its range and speed makes it a very favorable move to use in the neutral game and spacing, as well as edgeguarding.
Dash attack			12% (blade), 6% (tip)	A quick upward sweeping diagonal slash. Like Marth's, can either send opponents in front of him, behind him, or above him. Because this move has a slower animation overall than Marth's but the hitboxes are active for the same frames, the move starts before he even swings the sword and ends before it reaches halfway through his swing in front of him.
Forward smash			20% (blade), 12% (tip)	Rotates body counter-clockwise with a strong arc-like swing from his head to the ground, similar to the animation of his neutral special. It is rather fast, and is Roy's primary KO move.
Up smash		Flame Sword	2% (hits 1-4), 10% (hit 5)	A relatively quick sword thrust upwards with fire effects. Can act as an unorthodox spike if the enemy is hit on the sword's tip during the start of the attack, though this is highly situational. This attack is a multi-hit attack and the last hit has decent vertical knockback, if enemy is hit at the base. All hits can approximately deal up to 16.56% damage due to stale move negation.
Down smash			21%/14% (front), 16%/8% (back)	Sweeps his sword on the ground towards the front, then towards the back. A decent finisher, useful for vertical KOs, though there is rather high ending lag. Deals less damage if the opponent hits the tip of Roy's sword.
Neutral aerial			4% (hit 1), 8% (hit 2 base), 5% (hit 2 tip)	Two swipes around him via an inward slash then a full outward spin, with decent knockback and damage if sweetspotted.
Forward aerial			8% (base), 5% (tip)	Swipes sword in front of him with surprising range and tends to be a primary combo tool due to its speed and recovery.
Back aerial			9% (base), 6% (tip)	Turns around and swipes inward with his sword, similar to his forward aerial in terms of usage and knockback. Like Marth's back aerial, this move turns Roy around.
Up aerial			9% (base), 6% (tip)	Swipes above outward while doing a delayed backflip. Meant to be a juggle tool, but is often subpar due to its low early knockback.
Down aerial			9% (base), 6% (tip)	Swipes below via an outward wide slash. Meteor smashes opponents who come in contact with Roy's body, but is rather weak and has nearly unrecoverable ending lag. The move's sweetspot is extremely tiny; which is located at Roy's right arm and left shoulder (meaning that Roy has to overlap the opponent significantly), making it more difficult to hit with than Jigglypuff's Rest.
Grab			—	Roy reaches out with his free hand. Due to Roy being shorter than Marth, his grab range is slightly shorter, making it the 5th longest grab range overall and the second longest non-tether grab.
Pummel			3%	Knees the opponent.
Forward throw			5%	Grabs and pushes forward, tripping them with his leg.
Back throw			5%	Pulls the opponent behind him and extends his leg simultaneously.
Up throw			5%	Thrusts opponent upwards. Can chain grab fast-fallers at lower percentages. It is the second strongest up throw in the game.
Down throw			6%	Tosses the foe to the ground. Has chain grab and frame-trap potential.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Sweeps his sword on the ground, front to back.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	A quick stab to the left followed by a horizontal slash to the right.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8% (sword), 6% (hilt)	Flips onto ledge with a quick downward diagonal slash downwards. Hitbox only exists on Roy's right arm and his sword, meaning that foes close to the ledge Roy is hanging on can avoid the attack.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			8% (sword), 6% (hilt)	Slowly gets up and performs a quick horizontal slice upwards. Just like his quick edge attack, opponents can avoid the attack if they are close to the ledge Roy is currently hanging on.
Neutral special		Flare Blade	6-41%, 50% (fully charged)	Roy holds the Binding Blade over his head before doing a powerful overhead slash in a similar fashion to his forward smash. When the move is fully charged, Roy slams his sword on the ground, creating a large explosion that can one-hit KO any character in the game, but he takes 10% recoil damage as a side effect. This attack has transcendent priority.
Side special		Double-Edge Dance	Varies	A sequence of sword maneuvers with several variations based on the direction the control stick is held. All variations have transcendent priority.
Up special		Blazer	5%/3% (hit 1), 2%/1% (hits 2-4), 1% (hits 5-7)	Roy soars upwards with his sword, engulfed in flames. This move can be aimed by quickly pushing the control stick in a direction after the initial jump. It deals more hits on heavier characters such as Bowser. Can deal approximately up to 13.19% damage if all hits connect and not tippered. The first hit of this move deals great base knockback and is capable of sending floaty characters off the top on certain stages if this is the only hit that connects. (Capable of KOing Jigglypuff at 0% on Final Destination). This is most easily done with a reverse Blazer.
Down special		Counter	1.5x the damage of the countered move (min 1%)	Twirls his sword into reverse grip and holds it over his his left forearm, while bending down and performs a defensive stance. He will block incoming attacks by immediately raising his sword up in reverse grip and slash in a downwards arc. Damage and knockback dealt depends on the strength of the move that is countered.

Double-Edge Dance

Hit	Damage	Description
First Hit (Neutral)	5% (base), 4% (tip)	Does a vertical slash, has little knockback: incapable of KOing.
Second Hit (Up)	6% (base), 4% (tip)	Does an upwards slash.
Second Hit (Neutral)	6% (base), 4% (tip)	Does a stab, has a little more knockback then the first slash, but still not much.
Third Hit (Up)	Clean: 10% (base), 8% (tip) Late: 7% (base), 5% (tip)	Does a downwards vertical slash. Can meteor smash at the beginning of the move, but only when used on the ground.
Third Hit (Neutral)	10% (base), 8% (tip)	Does a fairly powerful horizontal slash.
Third Hit (Down)	3% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4)	Stabs his sword at the ground, dealing multiple flame damage.
Fourth Hit (Up)	13% (base), 10% (tip)	Does a jumping slash. Deals flame damage.
Fourth Hit (Neutral)	13% (base), 10% (tip)	Does a powerful vertical slash. Deals flame damage.
Fourth Hit (Down)	3% (hit 1-4), 5% (hit 5)	Does a flurry of lower stabs, each stab dealing flame damage.

Taunt

• Leans back and holds his sword behind him in an attack position, shouting "Heee-ya!"

Idle pose

• Gets in a ready pose.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Roy's-Our-Boy!	Roy! Roy! Roy!
Pitch	Group chant	Male

Victory poses

A rendition of a portion of the main theme of the Fire Emblem series.

• Swipes his sword once over his shoulder, then swipes it down and behind him while facing left, saying "守るべきもののために、負けられない!", which is localized as: "For those whom I must protect, I cannot lose!".
• Spins the Binding Blade one and a half times and then thrusts it into the ground in front of him, looking to slightly to the left, and says either of the following lines: "苦しい戦いだった。", which translates to: "It was a painful fight", or "僕 は 負けない。", which translates to: "I won't lose".
• Flourishes his sword and poses with it by his side, saying "真の戦いは、これからだ。", which translates to: "The true battle, is soon to begin".

In competitive play

Notable players

See also: Category:Roy professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  LAG - Ranked 50th on the Mexican Power Rankings. Considered the best Roy player in Mexico.

Inactive

•  Azen
•  Leon - Although better known for his Marth in Brawl, he placed well in many French tournaments with Roy.
•  LSDX - Placed 5th at Be Mine?. Has since been banned from tournament play following confirmed accusations of sexual misconduct.
•  Lunchables - A solid Roy player, although more known for his Roy in Project M.
•  Masashi - The strongest player in Japan in the early days; has a competent Roy secondary.
•  Mew2King - Known for his strong Roy when sandbagging.
•  NEO - Considered to be the best Roy player of all time with many results other Roy players still have yet to match.
•  NJzFinest
•  Ripple
•  Sethlon - Was considered to be the current best Roy player in the world after NEO’s retirement, due to his popularity and widely acclaimed combo video Ashes to Ashes.
•  voff3 - Considered to be the best Roy in Europe, although he only uses him as a secondary. Won sets against players such as Calle W.

Tier placement and history

Roy has always ranked horribly on all iterations of the tier list, much to the chagrin of all casual players everywhere who somehow think he's good (see the next section). Historically, all of Roy's players not named Zain have left the competitive scene in pain, as their attempts to go against the grain left their pathetic character slain. There was nothing to gain as their results remained pathetically the same, and by 2006 all dedicated Roy players had gone insane, leading to all of his players becoming irrelevant in the game.

There exist unscrupulous individuals in the competitive scene who partake in what is known as "matchup fishing". These players aim to exploit players who are too comfortable with the meta by playing low-tiered characters that their opponent doesn't know the matchup for. Often these low tiers have specific counterplay that invalidate them at the highest level, but by abusing most players' lack of knowledge of these strategies due to how different these characters are from the top-tiered ones, these low-tier mains can succeed to a reasonable degree and coast to respectable 257th place finishes, riding off the tears of up-and-comers who didn't know that Pichu loses to Sheik's chaingrab.

None of what we just covered applies in any way to Roy.

The "Tier Wars" and comparison to Marth

GameFAQs, a site notably filled with terrible players who think theorycrafting is more important than tournament results, had quite a few Roy defenders in the early 2000's. "You just have to use Roy differently," they argued, not knowing that anything Roy could do besides down tilt, Marth could do better. "Roy is more powerful," they claimed, a statement that is completely and blatantly false. These Roy apologists then continued to beat Level 9 CPUs and their younger siblings in Melee with the terrible swordsman by spamming forward smash, continuing to delude themselves into thinking that made them as good as Ken, Azen, or even GimR.

The players on GameFAQs, in fact, were so bad that even their arguments in favor of Marth were crap, essentially making this entire debate pointless, as Marth mains continued succeeding at the highest level while Roy mains continued succeeding at being in perpetual pain.

In single-player modes

In Classic Mode

Roy's unused intro image.

Unusually, Roy does not appear in Classic Mode when unlocked, neither as an ally, nor as an opponent, making him the only fighter who never appears at all; the reason for this is unknown. Despite this, Roy does have an introduction image for the "Now Loading..." screen between matches programmed into the disc.

In Adventure Mode

The Adventure Mode makes no concessions to Roy when he is unlocked. Like Marth, however, music associated with him can play in the Underground Maze stage.

In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Roy and his allies are fought on Final Destination, as Roy was not designated an official home stage. Final Destination has the unusual property of playing the Fire Emblem music track when accessed this way.

In Event Matches

Roy appears in two Event Matches:

• Event 46: Fire Emblem Pride: The player battles and must defeat a team of Marth and Roy in an untimed match on Temple, with all three characters receiving 3 stock.
• Event 49: All-Star Match Deluxe: Roy is the fifth opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles him on Temple with a stock of 2 while Roy has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other five characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage: Dr. Mario, Falco, Pichu, Young Link and Ganondorf.

Ending images

• 

  Classic Mode.

• 

  Adventure Mode.

• 

  All-Star Mode.

Trophies

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:

Roy (Classic):

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 leadership 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

(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

• 

  Classic

• 

  Adventure

• 

  All-Star

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Official artwork of Roy.

Trivia

Closeup of Roy's sword, showing the text "©HAL LABRATORY.INC"

• Close examination of textures for the Binding Blade shows the incorrectly spelt text "©HAL LABRATORY.INC" included in the file. It is not known why the signature is there.
• Roy is referred within the game files with the codename "EMBLEM", which obviously comes from his series.
• Roy does not feature a sheath during gameplay and his "Challenger Approaching" screen like Marth does; this is considered unusual, as Roy has a sheath in his victory poses, official art, character select portrait and all three of his trophies, as well as his unused Classic Mode introduction.
• Roy is the very first playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series to have debuted in the 21st century as well as the only one in Melee.
• Roy and Marth are the only two characters in Melee that speak Japanese even in the international release.
• Roy and Marth are the only playable characters in Melee that do not have a stage representing their universe, though hacked data shows that one was indeed planned.
  • In Melee's All-Star Mode, Roy is fought on Final Destination. In his two Event Match appearances and his unlock battle, he appears on Temple.
• Roy and Young Link are the only fighters to use their KO cry for other uses. Roy's is used when fully charging Flare Blade and Young Link's is used during his Star KO animation.
  • If Kirby would to be included using copy ability with Roy's Fully charged Flare Blade, this would make Kirby be one of the fighters to use their KO cry.
• Roy with his Flare Blade, Mr. Game & Watch with his Judge, and Pichu with most of its electric attacks are the only characters in Melee to have attacks that directly inflict recoil damage. Kirby can also harm himself if he copies either Roy or Pichu.
• Along with Marth, Roy was originally going to be a character exclusive to the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but was kept in all versions on request of an employee at Nintendo of America. Because of their inclusion, Western players took an interest in the Fire Emblem franchise, which sold in countries where the games in the series had not been released.
• Roy's appearance in Melee was the first time he appeared in any game, as his game was released after Melee.
  • This technically makes Roy the first ever playable Nintendo character to debut through the Super Smash Bros. series.
• All of Roy's sourspotted attacks make a punch/kick sound effect instead of a slashing sound effect.
• Ironically, Roy's sword trails indicate that the sweetspot is at the tip of the sword.
• Possibly as a result for his somewhat high learning curve and being a popular low-tier substitute for high-level smashers such as Mew2King and Ken, the term "skilled Roy" is a common gag inside the Melee community for being an unbeatable character, with the phrase "A skilled Roy can beat any Fox. This is why I main Roy." being a good example of it.
• Roy's group chant has spiked in popularity among Smash players, and often used as a meme.
• Roy's Counter does not have a limit to its maximum damage. If 3 or 4 Roys continuously counter each other, they can drive the damage of the counter's hitbox past 512, which crashes the game. This is because hitboxes in Melee only have room to store 9 bits for damage, which equals a maximum of 511 before it overflows into other code.
• Roy is one of the characters other than Marth that can perform the Whispy blink glitch.