I'm not a huge fan of how he's still a clone. I mean seriously. Sure he has a few unique animations, but I'm still disappointed with the way he turned out. Let's look at his move set for a second...
-His only unique smash is his side smash. The rest are just variation on Marth's.
-His up special is just a multiple hitting variation of the dolphin slash.
-His neutral special is basically just Ike's neutral special.
-He still has the dancing blade and counter.
-All of his aerials are all basically Marth's. His D-air? That's just the same as Ike's!
So basically Roy went from being a Marth clone to being a Marth and Ike clone. Seriously?
Nintendo could've put in more effort, sure, but I think there were a slew of reasons why they didn't 100% differentiate him from the Marth. They wanted him to stay faithful to a degree toward his Melee design, probably, and they also wanted him pumped out quickly to rake in the revenue. Starting with Marth as a base and editing from there was obviously the easiest option. I'm very much satisfied, however. I didn't want him to change so much that he felt like a different character, so this much of a decloning process to the state of semi-clone was enough for my tastes.
Blazer looks beautiful and not like a recolored Dolphin Slash w/ fire poofs, the usmash actually has special fire effects on the blade this time, and his aerials have a completely unique flair and utility from Marth. As far as dair goes, that was bound to be identical to another swordfighter's regardless. Can't exactly be too diverse in that move. Making Roy the fastest FE character was a really nice touch, highlighting his combo power, and his fast fall property gives his aerials entirely new uses (nair is actually worth using, and is really damn good)!
I have two gripes though: DED and Flare Blade. DED should have gotten unique animations to some degree, and Flare Blade should NEVER have turned into orange Eruption. The simple, charged overhead was perfect (a small explosion when it touched ground would've been cool, but not necessary).