My ballot vote was too limited (500 characters) for this, so I figured I'd write an e-mail. I ask that you please forward this to Sakurai, or at least provide me with an address to e-mail him personally with. These are ideas I know he will enjoy and see a lot of potential in.
I have been pushing for Roy's return for five years, and I have a lot of ideas for his return. If any of you feels like Roy isn't a justifiable character to add as DLC, I encourage you to write back, as I've done my homework on the topic and can give many reasons why he's one of the best, most profitable, and most relevant picks who would bring plenty of content to Nintendo overall as a DLC character for Super Smash Bros. and why he is a very welcome addition to represent Nintendo's rich history outside of all of those more superficial reasons. After all, you can't spell history without "roy."
I feel like he should definitely be decloned and made more unique, similar to Falco and Luigi. However, I think he has even more potential than that. With his unique animations, flame projectiles which have a lot of potential as shown by Robin, Palutena, and Zelda who have barely tapped into fire's potential which Roy specializes in, his ability to heal himself with the Sealed Sword, the ability to seal foes in ice as shown by the Champion's Blade manga, his acrobatic prowess, his brusque fighting style, and his unique attributes in Melee such as fast-falling, a mid-blade sweetspot that favored aggressive play and pressure, his unique special and multi-hit moves, falling into the rare glass cannon archetype, and his trajectory on moves being far different from Marth and Lucina's, I feel like he has the potential to not only be a returning veteran for those who enjoyed his charm and unique personality; not only in Fire Emblem, but Smash as well, but also pretty much a newcomer through a declone. How so?
To avoid alienating veteran players, he could carry the same playstyle, a lot of the similar combos/strings, similar function in moves, movement, and general play, and carry some of his stronger moves either unchanged, improved, or simply given new animations. To defeat "third Marth" complaints and complaints of Roy being "weak," provide fans with one of the most requested and loved characters and veterans, and create a truly unique character with Roy realizing his potential, a declone route is wise. How do we start on this? I have a lot of ideas I'd like to present.
SMASHES:
1: Forward Smash:
A staple move of Roy's, with a lot of power and satisfaction behind it.
A terrifying move, being beefy with a fair amount of range in the sweetspot.
How do we make it even more unique and satisfying?
I suggest having Roy step forward with the move, slamming with his whole weight put into it in a two-handed swing. He is exposed longer than Marth, and he exposes himself to the foe more by moving forward, but the attack hits fairly hard. Being tipped, it doesn't deal much damage, but it sends the foe far enough away for Roy to recover and rush right back into the fight, fixing one of his biggest problems in Melee where he could be easily punished for landing a tipped move.
2: Up Smash:
Fire moves look beautiful in the newest iteration, and multi-hit moves feel just right. I feel like this move should be ported directly over, but with an animation more faithful to Roy's game, where he raises his blade over his head with two hands and ignites it.
3: Down Smash:
Roy's double swing hit really hard, but I feel like it shouldn't stay. It wasn't quite a staple move on Roy, and there's already many characters with it.
Please replace the move with a strong, downward lunge that creates a slow-moving wall of flame that moves forwards. It has a fair amount of power, and is about as tall as Roy, even if this would be Roy's weakest Smash Attack, and could set up for a combo via an aerial or a way for Roy to retreat and form better ground. Too many swordsmen have a two-hit Down Smash, and I feel like this would really make Roy stand out and bring a unique move to Smash.
One-handed lunge.
TILTS:
1: Jab
I feel like Roy's jab from Melee would be a good choice to keep exactly the same. It feels unique enough from Marth's and Lucina's, and I like the move.
One-handed swing.
2: Forward Tilt:
Roy gives a short, feint slash horizontally that lets out a slow-moving horizontal flame. It doesn't cover as much vertical range as Marth and Lucina's forward tilt, but it covers slightly more horizontal space with a lingering hitbox and the move comes out and ends about as fast.
One-handed swing.
3: Down Tilt:
I enjoyed the downwards stab that popped foes upwards to combo into them.
I feel like it's highly important to keep it as a combo move, but with an animation that makes popping up a foe more logical. Perhaps a swing at the feet, similar to Ike's, with the speed of Marth/Lucina's downward stab.
One-handed move.
4: Up Tilt:
This move could start at the opposite end of where Marth/Lucina's starts, similar to Donkey Kong. It moves slower, but it creates some lingering flames, good for catching air dodges or foes who try to dance around Roy in the air, but it leaves him exposed for a bigger punish opportunity if they play around it.
Two-handed swing.
AERIALS:
1: Neutral Air:
I like the two swings from Melee. I feel like they should be made event more extreme than Marth's, where they take even more time to come out, but they hit harder.
Alternative: Roy could use his acrobatic ability to spin with forward flips, similar to Sonic, with his blade. Less reach than Marth/Lucina, but it's more constant coverage around him.
One-handed swings, or two-handed spin.
2: Forward Air:
A one-handed forward lunge where Roy pulls his arm back and delivers a vicious, fiery thrust forward that could be a knockout move could work really well. It could be the first aerial to be angled like a tilt, too. This would be faithful to his original fighting style with rapiers and bring something unique to Smash overall.
3: Back Air:
Roy could give a surprise turn-around swing in an arc, similar to Marth's back air but with a two-handed swing. This would let the player balance between a high-knockback, long horizontal range lunge, or a general arc to swat them away, and would give a lot of room to have fun with turnarounds on aerials.
4: Down Air:
I like the old move, and I can see where it can be made more unique. Roy could swing with two hands, having decent power at the tip and below, a lot of power at the mid-blade, but having an incredible amount of power where his arms and hands are at any given part of the move, hitting with a vicious meteor that ignites foes if his arms and hands land a blow.
5: Up Air:
His old juggling move was nice. I suggest making it a two-handed swing with a decent amount of power behind it, good for juggles. Since Roy excels at the ground more than the air, this will help Roy show that it's a bad idea to be directly above him if you're near the ground.
THROWS:
I feel like a blend of Marth and Ike's throws could work really well for Roy, or just Marth's throws. Either way, they'd look really good on him, and still function really well. Pit and Dark Pit also have throws that would work well on him or blend well with other types of throws.
SPECIALS:
1: Flare Blade:
The good ol' 5 second, 50 damage charge. I feel like this move should remain a 50 damage OHKO, since it doesn't have as much range as Ike's Eruption. Super Armor would be a welcome addition to this move, too. Marth has a lunge, Ike has a plummeting sword, Roy has an overhead swing. A welcome dynamic.
2: Double-Edged Dance:
I always enjoyed this move on Roy much more than Marth and Lucina's Dancing Blade. However, I can see it becoming even more fleshed-out, unique, and satisfying. There could be more experimentation and use of Roy's flame projectiles. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th horizontal swings could all be horizontal flame projectiles, each larger than the previous. Downwards swings can form walls of fire, while the multi-hit stab at the end of the downwards variation (it looked so much better and felt much more satisfying on Roy than Marth/Lucina to me) is kept and beefed up, it could become even more of a throwback to Roy's fencing days. The fourth hit upwards can form a Palutena-esque (with her Up Smash) vertical pillar of flame. All of these would have new animations to differentiate them from Dancing Blade a lot, keeping the final horizontal and upwards variations as finishing moves while the final downwards strike racks up lots of fiery damage. How do you feel about that? A variable projectile in some parts, and strong melee swings in the others.
Weaker swings could be one handed, while all finishers would be two-handed.
3: Blazer:
I really liked this move as a recovery move, as it annoyed pesky edgeguarders, and seemed like a whole new move compared to Dolphin Slash. I don't think it needs to change, I think it'll look beautiful after seeing Mega Man's Flame Sword.
4: Counter:
This move was really unique and fun! I loved how skill-based it was, with the variable damage and short window to land. It could remain a hard-to-hit move that would be weak if it countered weak moves, but to compensate for that, it could have a much higher damage multiplier than other counters, like 2x or 3x against all moves; an entirely different damage and knockback formula than the counters we had both in Brawl and here.
Alternative: He could do away with the counter entirely with a move that coats his sword in more flame the longer the button is held. The longer it's held, the longer its effect will last, and the more damage it will deal while active. All non-fire moves will be blessed with fire, and all fire moves will have even more fire. This will motivate the player to score more star KO's to get more opportunities for a full five second charge. Using Flare Blade at any point during this charge removes the whole charge, but all of its power goes into Flare Blade. Let's say you charge down-b for two seconds and immediately Flare Blade, you can either release instantly for 2 seconds worth of power, or continue charging for 3 more seconds for a full hit instead of 5 full seconds.
If the Alternative is chosen, I urge that you please place Roy's old Counter (first idea) into Custom Specials.
FINAL SMASH:
I have multiple ideas on this. I feel like Roy has many potential options, and this is only the surface of it.
1: Final Flame:
Roy coats the ground of the entire battlefield in magma, showing his mastery of ground combat, and launches flame waves, orbs, pillars, and walls around the battlefield for a period of time.
2: True Potential:
Roy promotes into a new, third-tier class that Smash would introduce. He possesses the most powerful, intense swordfighting on the roster with this final smash, showing the true potential of a hero. All attacks bounce off of him, similar to when a highly-experienced unit in Fire Emblem who has realized their potential fights much weaker units. This new class could be tied in with a Binding Blade sequel, wink wink.
CUSTOM SPECIALS:
If Roy does receive custom specials, I have two sets in mind.
1: Marth's specials from Melee. This would appeal to those who liked Marth in his debut iteration, gaining sales and attention from them. This would also add some defensive opportunities to Roy, for those who find his playstyle too risky but still want to play him, or for those who want a certain balance in their offensive and defensive play.
2: New, exciting variants that open up Roy to even more opportunities to be a hazardous, glass cannon fighter.
B:
1: Default (Flare Blade)
2: Marth's Shield Breaker swing from Melee. Lots of shield damage, less time to charge up.
3: A swing that can't be charged up, but it deals more damage than an uncharged swing from default.
Alternative for 3: A move that has weaker damage scaling, but can be charged for 10 seconds and hits for up to 100 or 150 damage.
Up-B:
1: Default (Blazer)
2: A Blazer variant that functions like Marth's Melee Dolphin Slash, where it's incredibly strong at the start but really weak at the end. Reverse Dolphin Slash, or Dolphin Slash out of shield for knockouts from Marth were extremely satisfying and I liked when that move used to be a reliable kill move. The start of the move could have an explosion, to make it logical for Roy and unique.
3: A shorter-distance Blazer with really strong flame, damage, and knockback throughout the whole move.
Side-B:
1: Default (Double-Edged Dance)
2: Classic Double-Edged Dance. While the default has been decloned and made highly unique, there can always be the option of using his old variations, which would be easy and quick to bring over, to appeal to a wider range of veterans and alienate even fewer Roy fans.
3: Slower swings, but higher knockback and damage, and larger flames.
Down-B:
1: Default
2: Marth's Melee counter, where it always deals 7 damage but has a much larger counter window. Doesn't diminish over time like Shulk's long window.
3: Whichever part of "SPECIALS" under Counter did not make the cut. If he keeps his Counter, his flame coating would be a really neat idea here. If he loses his classic Counter, it could go here.
Please write back with what you think. I (and possibly many others) would love to play with these unique ideas that defeat issues some have with Roy.
man, the thread exploded since you were gone. I think we at least doubled in posts since then. Let's hope our victory is in store next week!
