That little, teensy paragraph was too long for you? T_|
I would say... Marth. He's a bit heavier than he was in Melee.
Meh, since Roy got cut, I went to Ike. Although I like Ike, Roy is still my boy. Here is a wall-of-text I wrote on why I would bring Roy back for Smash 4 if I was directing:
Roy:
Who’s our boy? Roy’s our boy! That has to be the best cheer in the entire Smash series. Seriously, as many of you know I am a fan of Roy and he was one of my two mains in Melee (the other being Samus). I really wanted Roy to return in Brawl as a playable character, unfortunately he did not make it. However, Roy was among the last two of the Forbidden 7 to be cut from the final game (there is a listing for Roy’s victory theme within the game’s coding, and I highly expect that Roy’s Hope would have been the music that would have played when you fought him when unlocking him). Although Roy has many fans, he also has many haters. My reasoning for Roy will help explain why I decided to bring him back and why I chose him over other Elibe lords such as Eliwood, Lyn, and Hector.
Roy was one of the most unexpected characters in the Melee roster, primarily because his game was not even out yet. As a matter of fact, a lot of people originally thought Roy was going to be Roy Koopa. Well, when the Melee leaker mentioned that Roy was actually some guy named Roy from Fire Emblem, the few people that were familiar with Fire Emblem shot back saying that there was no one from Fire Emblem that was named Roy. This made a lot of people happy because this disproved the nightmare Melee roster (ironically enough, I would have preferred if we got a roster like the Melee as opposed to the one for Brawl, however, I will explain my reasoning for that later on in this topic). When the leaked Melee roster was found to be true, a lot of people were naturally upset, however, they decided to move on and play Melee.
Very few people knew who Marth and Roy were, so naturally many people tested them out. Many people liked Marth for his speed and the quickness of his attacks, while many others loved Roy for his extra knockback and power and more well-rounded nature as well as his fire attacks and cooler design. Marth and Roy became instant favorites with the Smash community. Many people also confused the two as being from the same game, leading to the most annoying Fire Emblem fad ever, “Are Marth and Roy in this game?” Pretty soon Roy became one of the most used characters in Melee, especially among the casual Melee players.
Many Smash and Nintendo fans begged Nintendo to bring over the Fire Emblem series (especially considering the most recent one had Roy in it). Nintendo realized the potential that Fire Emblem could have in the West and decided to released Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword over here (simply called Fire Emblem in the West). Many people confused Eliwood for Roy, and thus Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword became a best-seller on the Game Boy Advance and helped establish a sizable Fire Emblem fanbase in the West. To this day, Fire Emblem 7 remains the highest selling Fire Emblem in the West, and probably the only game in the series to sell over a million copies.
Many people, however, became thirsty for Roy’s game, Fire Emblem: The Sword of Seals (especially considering that the Blazing Sword ended with a cliffhanger). However, when it became obvious that Nintendo was not going to bring it over, fans translated it themselves. However, things would soon turn for the worst for our boy Roy. The rise of tiers and competitive Melee gameplay would make Roy the disdain of the tourney-goers. The Roy and Marth debates were brutal and furious, and it was determined that not only was Marth superior to Roy, but far superior. Many Roy fans swallowed their pride, and decided to hell with tiers.
Unfortunately, Roy’s misfortune would not end there. He was also starting to gain the ire and hate of the growing Fire Emblem hardcore. Many people initially played FE6 expecting Roy to be as awesome as Hector or as good as Eliwood, however, what they found was a lord that would be a liability for much of the game. Roy’s “uselessness” made him hated among Fire Emblem fans. However, it is important to note that although Roy does not have the stats of the likes of Hector, Ike, Sigurd, and Celice, he does have similar stat growths to Eliwood, who himself was a good lord in his own game. Roy’s mediocrity for much of FE6 was actually the cause of the poor balance of FE6 in that many people who hate FE6 hate it due to the fact that it is far harder than most Fire Emblems not named Thracia 776 and that you either get garbage characters or awesome, broken characters. Also, many enemies in the game are much stronger than most of the characters in your army, and reinforcements attack within the same turn, adding further frustration to people who had enjoyed Blazing Sword. Also, Roy was also unable to get his father’s usefulness due to the fact that he promotes very late in the game (which is also when he gets the Sword of Seals, which is the most powerful and broken weapon of the entire Elibe arc). Once Roy promotes, he is a high tier unit and can actually be used for offensive purposes. If Roy promoted earlier and the enemies given the same stats as the ones found in FE7, he would have probably have been a much better lord overall in terms of stats (take for example in FE7, Hector is considered better than Eliwood in Eliwood Mode, however, the opposite is true for Hector Mode since Eliwood is able to promote earlier). Also, there is the claim that Roy has the worst stats of any lord in the Fire Emblem series, all I can say is that you haven’t played with Micaiah (who doesn’t even get a holy weapon and promotes only a few chapters earlier than Roy does in his game)or FE5 Leaf (he’s a powerhouse in FE4, but dang does he live up to his name in durability in FE5). Also, Roy is overall considered to be high-tier in FE6.
As to FE6, its really mixed. In feedback. Some people claim it as the best of the three GBA Fire Emblems, while others say it was when Fire Emblem started going downhill. However, it is important to note that FE6 was the third-highest selling game in the series in Japan, behind only FE3 and FE4. FE6 also introduced magic-system triangle (Anima-Light-Dark), and has been in every Fire Emblem since then. Another new gameplay aspect that was introduced with FE6 was the popular Support System, which allowed to develop the character of units through conversations as well as a boost their stats, and the Support System has been in every Fire Emblem since then (however, in FE10 the conversation aspect was omitted, which angered a lot of Fire Emblem fans).
Now that I am done discussing FE6, I will now go on to explain how Roy’s hope of returning in Smash got dimmer. Well, now since Fire Emblem has a Western fanbase many people now knew about more lords besides Roy and Marth. Lyn, Hector, and Eliwood all were quite popular, and would be the most popular lords among Western Fire Emblem fans until FE9 was released, and Ike pretty much took the crown for most popular Fire Emblem lord among Western Fire Emblem fans. Many Lyn (and some Hector) fans saw Roy as a threat to her entering the Smash series as a playable character, and thus took every chance they got at insulting him and would often exaggerate his deficits. Pretty soon, every one who had a favorite Fire Emblem lord that was not Roy, took to deride Roy and make him seem worse than he actually was.
Things would get even worse with Roy with the news that Sakurai was planning to cut some characters from Melee. Many Lyn and Ike fans smelt blood, and they went straight for Roy’s. They would say that Roy’s time was over and that he was an advertisement (which he was) and would try their best to character assassinate Roy. Roy fans tried to hold together and fight back, however, the legions of Lyn and Ike fans proved to be too much for Roy fans to handle. Even I myself was an ardent Ike supporter. When Ike was announced, both Marth and Roy fans panicked. Some Marth fans thought that Ike would be too much like Marth and would possibly replace him, and Roy fans thought he was too much like Roy. The Lyn fans naturally jumped on this and said that adding Ike was Sakurai’s way of saying that Marth would be cut because he would never add two blue-haired Fire Emblem characters, and that being female made her massively more important than Marth. Naturally, the sane Fire Emblem fans did not buy this tripe and knew that Marth was a lock to return once we saw his specials (although the Lyn fans would keep up this “LOL blue-hairs r t3h same” up until the day Lyn was confirmed to be an Assist Trophy).
However, Lyn’s deconfirmation did not make the Lyn fans go away. Instead, they jumped onto another female lord. That lord was Micaiah. However, unlike Lyn, the Lyn supporters actually had some good reasons to back Micaiah besides she is female and popularity. They said that in combination to being female that Micaiah would bring a magic-moveset and that since she was from the most recent Fire Emblem, so she would most likely get in as a promotion like Roy did. Some even said that she would take Marth’s spot because they believed that Sakurai would only make Tellius lords playable (however, Sakurai did end up making the only trophies for Fire Emblem characters from Tellius, with the exception of Marth and Lyn). Micaiah fans would then attack Sigurd and Roy supporters, because their lords are sword-wielders and would thus not bring as much uniqueness as Micaiah would. Roy fans now had to battle with Micaiah fans that Roy was indeed worthy enough to return, however, it was pointless to fight since most of Micaiah’s fanbase was the rabid Lyn fanbase, and thus had a huge number advantage.
With Ike’s confirmation as being slow, I knew there was still a place for Roy, and that he could be a nice median between the quickness and lightness of Marth (why Sakurai buffed him in Brawl I do not know) and power, heavyness, and slowness of Ike. I stepped up my support for Roy dramatically, and even created the official Roy support thread on SmashBoards. I would eventually found the Knights of Elibe (a support group for Roy to return in Brawl) and we would work together to come up with unique movesets for Roy as well as fend off any supporters for other Fire Emblem characters that came into our topic trolling Roy. We supported Roy until the end, and I vowed to them that I would work hard to change perception on Roy and to try and possibly persuade Sakurai to bring him back as a playable character in Smash 4.
Before I go on to explain why I selected Roy, please allow me to explain why I am a fan of him. Its true that Roy got into Melee as a playable character in order to advertise the upcoming Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals for the Game Boy Advance, which was released more than four months after Melee’’s Japanese release. Roy was one of the two characters that I mained in Melee (the other being Samus). When I first saw Marth and Roy in the Melee roster leak, I did not really have an opinion of them, since I did not know them. I tried Marth first, but I did not really like using him (I really tried to get into Mr. Game & Watch but I just found him a bit too weak). I tried Roy and I liked what how he played. He had good knock-back, average speed and average weight, as well some nice fire effects going on. Slowly, I would use Roy more and more and would learn how to utilize all of his moves. Pretty soon, I mained him along with Samus. However, Roy’’s influence on me did not stop there, Roy also made me get interested in the Fire Emblem series. Once I picked up a Fire Emblem game for the first time, I instantly fell in love with it. Fire Emblem would later become one of my favorite series ever. If it had not been for Roy, I probably would have never have picked up a Fire Emblem game, as well as many other people. I understand that Roy’’s purpose was mainly as an advertisement, however, he holds a special place in my heart for getting me into what is arguably one of Nintendo’’s best series. Had it not been for Roy, I would have never become a big Fire Emblem fans, and I would not have discovered this awesome series and some of Nintendo’s most awesome characters (Sigurd, Alvis, Eliwood, Hector). I had a lot of good times of Roy with Melee, and Roy makinjg me discover Fire Emblem made me have a lot of good times with Fire Emblem. It is quite easy to say that Roy was my boy.
Now with that out of the way, let me explain why I picked Roy. First off, I wanted every two game Fire Emblem arc to be represented in my roster with a playable character. These two game arcs include Akaneia (home of Marth), Jugdral (home of Sigurd, Celice, Leaf, and Alvis), Elibe (home of Roy, Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn), and Tellius (home of Ike and Micaiah). I wanted to give each one of these two-game continents a playable representative, however, deciding upon who to represent each continent was not easy (especially for Jugdral). The following paragraphs will explain why I did not choose Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector, and why I did choose Roy to return as a playable character and as Elibe’s representative.
First let me explain why I did not add Lyn. Lyn is one of the most popular lords among Western Fire Emblem fans and was one of the most requested characters for Brawl. However, I honestly cannot see the appeal in Lyn. She is only the lord for a tutorial part of FE7, and after the tutorial, she contributes nearly nothing to the plot and is just a girl that adds something to whatever Eliwood and Hector are saying. Lyn is most likely the least important lord in the entire series through a storyline point-of-view, and definitely the least important lord by far to Elibe (hell, she is not even mentioned anywhere in FE6, wheras both Eliwood and Hector are unlockable trial map characters in that game). Lyn also has the worst stats of all three of the lords from FE7, and is the worst of three in both Eliwood Mode and Hector Mode (anyway who says Lyn is better than Eliwood as a unit, is either uniformed, ignorant, a fanboy, a liar, or all the above).
Lyn does not even get a holy weapon from the Scouring like Eliwood and Hector. Instead she gets a no-name blade called Sol Katti, which is weaker in her hands as opposed to another swordmaster or even Eliwood. The fact that the Sacae Plains have a holy weapon (a bow called Miugre) and that Lyn can use bows just shows how insignificant she is to the plot and how her principal purpose was to teach Westerners Fire Emblem. Also, despite what her supporters say, Lyn lacks moveset potential. All Lyn has over the other Elibe lords is her gender, which shouldn’t even be considered something to pick more worthy characters over for. Her sword style is uninteresting, and I think if more sword users are going to be added they would need to have a style that is not present in the Smash series (such as a two-handed fighting style or a rapier-fighting style). While she can use bows, it would only provide for one special move. Roy, Eliwood, and Hector offer more uniqueness due to their fighting styles and the specials that would come with them.
Lyn primarily got into Brawl as an Assist Trophy due to her massive Western fanbase. However, I think a lot of the Assist Trophies were Sakurai’s way of saying that he could not come up with a unique moveset for them. Also, there were much worthier characters for the only Fire Emblem Assist Trophy spot (Sigurd or Celice). Lyn is also by far the most hated Elibe lord in Japan. They hate her primarily due to the fact that they were forced to relearn Fire Emblem during her arc, as well as due to her stats compared to the likes of Hector and Eliwood as well as her uselessness in the game’s main plot. They are bewildered as to why she is popular as she is among the Western Fire Emblem fanbase. It is for this reason that Lyn aspired to the most she could hope for in the Smash series (along with Waluigi), characters that lack moveset potential but have massive popularity should instead be relegated to Assist Trophy status as opposed to taking a spot from a more worthy character. However, despite these arguments I feel the Lyn supporters will continue to be a thorn in the side of supporters for other Fire Emblem lords whenever Smash 4 is announced, and will continued to use the “she is worthy cuz she is female and has t3h popularity.”
The next Elibe lord that I am going to discuss is Eliwood. Let me first tell you that Eliwood is my favorite Elibe lord and I like him over Roy. Eliwood basically fixed all the flaws that Roy had in FE6. Eliwood is useful throughout FE7 and is one of the most balanced lords around, and he also shows varying emotions and has character development. Also, FE7 happens to be one of my favorite Fire Emblems. Eliwood is the father of Roy, and thus shares a lot in common physically with him (however, he looks older and wears a coat as opposed to a tunic). Eliwood is considered by most Fire Emblem fans to have been the most important of the three lords from FE7 to the plot. Also, many would consider Eliwood the second-most important lord to the Elibe arc, behind only Roy himself. Eliwood’s weapon of choice is a rapier, and he gets the legendary sword from the Scouring called Durandal, which was wielded by Lycia’s (the nation that is home to Roy, Eliwood, and Hector) founder Roland. Eliwood once he promotes can also use a horse and wield lances.
In FE6, Eliwood is referred to as the greatest knight in Lycia, and even is able to defend his castle despite having a debilitating illness. Heck, Eliwood is even made head of the Lycian League, and is a very powerful trial map character. Eliwood is also unlike his son, loved by the Fire Emblem hardcore, and is the only Elibe lord that the Japanese Fire Emblem fanbase has a mostly positive opinion of and is easily the most popular lord of the GBA Fire Emblems over there. Eliwood was one of two lords that I saw Japanese Smash fans cheering on for the third Fire Emblem spot (the other being Micaiah, however, she is not popular among Japanese Fire Emblem fans there, and most of her popularity for Smash came from people who desperately wanted another female character to be made playable). I honestly think that if all of Lyn and Hector’s Western fans had banded behind Eliwood, Fire Emblem would have gotten a third playable character definitely. Unfortunately, most of Eliwood’s Western fans were silenced by the Lyn mob, thus destroying any chances of a FE7 lord becoming playable in the Smash series.
Eliwood’s rapier could bring a new sword fighting style to the Smash series (while one may argue that Eliwood should wield Durandal, it is important to note that he does not wield the blade until the final chapter in FE7, and Durandal would look very awkward on an unmounted Eliwood as it is probably the biggest legendary sword in the entire Fire Emblem series, and slows down Eliwood massively even on his horse, and one can imagine what it would do to him on foot). Eliwood would also have some unique specials such as incorporating a lance or a javelin throw in one of them and summoning his horse and using it similar to how Wario uses his bike. He could also be given Durandal as his Final Smash.
However, you all might be wondering that if Eliwood has this much going for him, then why have I not selected him on my roster? Well, for one my goal for this project was to bring back all cut Melee veterans, and this included Roy (however, Pichu is the only exception being that I could not come up with a unique and interesting moveset for him to warrant his re-inclusion). Thus, I decided to bring back Roy as well. Also, it was the fact that I was able to come up with a much more unique moveset for Roy than for Eliwood that decided me to keep Roy over his father. Roy was also originally intended to be in Brawl (along with Mewtwo) and were both probably in the game as recently as 2007. Also in an official Smash 4, Eliwood would be less likely to enter as a playable character than Roy. He will probably be forgotten by most Japanese FE fans by the time the next Smash is announced, while there will at least still be memory of Roy having been a playable character in Melee. Sigurd, while he is the darling of Japanese Fire Emblem fans, has not gotten into Smash as so much as a sticker due to the Japanese Smash fans not being familiar with him or his game, due to it being released a decade ago, I fear the same fate might happen to Eliwood. Also, I had an easier time making Roy’s unique sword fighting style over making Eliwood’s rapier-style as I am more familiar how to fight with a two-handed sword with both hands as opposed to fighting with a rapier. However, if I had to replace Roy with another Elibe lord, Eliwood would definitely take the spot.
The last Elibe lord that I am going to discuss before going on to Roy will be Hector. Hector is considered by many to be the strongest of the Elibe lords, and he is also one of the most popular lords among Western Fire Emblem fans. Hector is popular for his power and his personality. I myself like Hector too (the only Elibe lord I dislike is Lyn). Hector is less important than Eliwood in FE7, however, he is far more important than Lyn. I would rank Hector as the third-most important lord to the Elibe arc. Hector’s primary weapon is an axe. Hector wields the legendary axe Armads at the end of FE7.
Hector falls behind Lyn in popularity among Western Smash fans, and is less popular than Eliwood among Japanese Fire Emblem fans. I think he should have had the Assist Trophy spot in Brawl as opposed to Lyn (though Sigurd or Celice would have also been great). Many Hector fans say that he is deseving of a spot due to fact that he wields an axe as opposed to a sword as most Fire Emblem lords do. However, I don’t really see what an axe user could bring. Ike already takes the slow, heavy, powerful Fire Emblem character spot, and King Dedede’s hammer is very similar to how an axe-user would work in Brawl (both hammer and axes would have the same hit box distance, so the comparison is fair). I also had difficulty coming up with some unique specials for Hector (the only things I thought of was using his axe as a hand axe) as well as a Final Smash. Overall, Hector simply did not interest me as a playable character to add to Brawl, and I already said that if I were to choose an Elibe lord besides Roy that it would be Eliwood.
Finally, I will discuss what brought me to bring back Roy. First, he is the only Elibe lord to have a game all by himself. Also, FE6 is a much more important game to the Elibe arc than FE7 (much like how FE4 is more important than FE5). In FE6, all the holy weapons are regathered, and Roy’s army even get to fight an army of dragons at the end and even the general that lead the dragons in the Scouring and the Dark Dragon that was used to make more dragons. In FE7, the protagonists were wetting themselves over the prospects of fighting one dragon, and only four of the holy weapons are used in the final chapter. Also, in FE6 all of Elibe is visited, wheras in FE7 most of the game takes place in Lycia, Bern, Sacae, and two chapters in Nabata. The main antagonist in FE7 was simply a huge mercenary company being led by a hundred year-old mage (Nergal), wheras in FE6 the main antagonist is Elibe’s military superpower (Bern) and their leader is being somewhat controlled by a dragon general (Yahn) who is over a thousand years-old. We learn much more about the Scouring and Elibe’s backstory in FE6 than we do in FE7 as well. Roy's also wields the most powerful legendary weapon of all, and was originally wielded by Hartmut (the founder of Bern) and was used to defeat the Dragon of Darkness at the end of the Scouring.
Roy is also still quite liked among Smash fans, both Western and Japanese. Heck, many Japanese Fire Emblem fans wanted Roy to return in Brawl and wished that he would be given a unique moveset that reflected either his rapier-style unpromoted or his two-handed style when in his Master Lord class. Roy was also one of the most popular characters in Melee with Japanese Smash fans and one of the first messages that was in Sakurai’s poll was someone begging him to bring back Roy and to possibly give him a rapier fighting-style to make him differ from Marth. Many Japanese Smash fans were also trying to find Roy when Brawl was first leaked and was thought to still be in the game along with Mewtwo and Black Shadow. Roy will probably be the only Elibe lord that will remain in the minds of Japanese Smash fans primarily due to his inclusion in Melee.
Roy is also very well-liked among Western Smash fans, and many casuals and less-educated forum users are confused as to why he was cut in the first place (unfortunately, many of those topics quickly devolve into Roy flamefests). Many people want to see Mewtwo and Roy return in Smash 4, however, unfortunately, many people attack these characters primarily because there were cut. Roy is still one of the most well-known characters in the Fire Emblem series thanks to Melee, and thus would make more sense than to add the lords from FE7 who may be forgotten or much less popular by the time Smash 4 is announced. I feel if I can get Western Smash fans to rally behind Roy’s return to Smash, that he will be reincluded as a playable character for Smash 4, however, this will be an uphill battle, and I am hoping that this project will change many people’s minds on certain characters, including Roy.
Roy also has the Sword of Seals which actually provides for a very unique moveset. The sword itself is a two-handed sword, however, unlike Ike I plan to have Roy wield it with both hands which is drastically different than using a two-handed sword with one-hand (fighting with a two-handed with one-hand is just asking for a quick death, but this Ike we are talking about here). The Sword of Seals also has some unique aspects to it besides its ability to burst into flames. One unique trait about the Sword of Seals that can be incorporated in Roy’s moveset is that it can do a ranged attack, something that Sakurai did not include with Ike’s moveset despite Ragnell could also do this. The Sword of Seals can also heal its wielder another aspect that will provide for another unique special move for Roy. Overall, Roy is not just another sword-user, he is a completely unique character, and will add a lot to the game I am proposing due to the nature (and consequences) of wielding a two-handed sword with both hands, as well as the Sword of Seals’s unique properties.
Roy has his haters and his fans, and I hope that I did my best to explain why he deserves a second chance in the Smash Bros. series. I hope that the people who disdain Roy will respect the effort I put into his moveset as well as the extremely long reasoning I gave to explain why I decided to bring him back. I hope that you will love his new moveset, and that it is unique enough to warrant giving Fire Emblem a third sword-user. I also hope all you Roy fans learned something from this massive essay and that you thoroughly enjoy what I have planned for Roy. Overall, Smash Bros. is not just about popularity, but also who can add to the game and roster, and ironically Roy will probably be just that among the game’s sword wielders. Oh and remember, Roy’s Our Boy!
