#61: Roy (Melee)
Preferred color: GOLDEN JUSTICE
Favorite move: Down Tilt
Clones in Melee are clones in move animation only since the moves themselves have different properties and they can play completely different styles because of said differences. But that doesn’t stop Roy from being obsolete. He’s not the worst character but he might as well not be in the game at all. Fox/Falco and Falcon/Ganon are the best examples of how clones play differently but there really is no point to playing Roy in a competitive environment. Unless you want to play Golden Justice that is, which is the only Roy worth playing. Almost everything he has is a worse version of Marth’s, especially his aerials. And in Melee, your aerials are a big factor in determining your success.
Roy also has a faster fall speed, nearly enough to categorize him with legitimate fast fallers like Fox, Falco and Falcon. Faster fall speed allows for better SHFFLing and combo productivity but because his aerials suck, the faster fall speed only hurts him. He has the worst recovery in the game next to Falco imo because of this.
He’s also the premiere noob attractor. Despite Marth’s obvious superiority, a lot of people still flock to Roy because of Marth’s lack of fire. Every time I met someone who said they “mained Roy” they always played exactly the same: spam special moves. If you play seriously enough to say you have a main, but you “main” Roy, I’ve generally found the person is not that good. At all. Neo, the “best Roy in the world” still played Marth in most tournaments IIRC.
But you have to do with what you have I guess. Roy’s faster SHFFLing makes him fun to mess around with in casuals. Getting hit with down tilt brings you up, and it’s certainly my favorite move of his because you can go into a lot of other usable moves he has like up air, neutral air or f smash for the kill.
Speaking of f smash, if you sweetstpot it (near hilt), it can kill at pretty low percentages but if you miss, it sucks really bad unlike Marth’s who you can still get by without sweetspoting.