Why do Fire Emblem fans hate Roy?

[~Grynn~]

A lot of FE fans hate Roy because he's pretty much the worst lord in FE history. The amount of special treatment you have to give him until he promotes (which is FAR too late in the game) makes me wish I was using another character.

But he's also our boy. Lucina's our gal. And Marth's our... er, girl?

Annd Ike's our bike.

because Ike is OP in both his games, and you can ride him to victory hahaha

 

[Troykv]

because Ike is OP in both his games, and you can ride him to victory hahaha

Actually Ike isn't exacty over powerful in FE9 in the first levels (Marth Style Base Stats), but gets better because the game is easy and promotes soon.

FE10!Ike is OP in all the freaking game (unless you sleep him xD)

 

[Ura]

while his father eliwood was a ****ing badass that one-shotted enemies

I don't even want to live on this planet anymore...

 

[L9999]

I used to hate Roy because the RNG in FE6 is really unfair. Then I played FE13 and say the epitomy of mediocrity Chrom is and I remebered that Roy at least had something going for him. He wasn't an army destroyer, he was a kid thrown to a continental war who wanted peace and was really nice. And at age 15 he had a harem. And I forgived Roy in Smash 4 because his new design is really cool.

everyone who love fire emblem hates roy because 1. he was in melee before he was in a fire emblem, and he was weak as ****, easily one of the worst units in his own game. while his father eliwood was a ****ing badass that one-shotted enemies

Are you describing Hector? Because Eliwood was average and didn't one shotted enemies that easy.

 

[Quillion]

Eliwuss also can't even use his signature weapon without being doubled by enemies.

 

[Ura]

Honestly, if it were Eliwood in Smash Bros instead of Roy, it would be him that gets all the massive flak from the fanbase.

 

[Cress!]

Fire Emblem fans just love complaining. Awakening was one of the most hated games in the series because it was too easy, with casual mode and pairing up. Both of which are features you don't even need to use. Sacred Stones was hated for having a world map which I found extremely helpful, but it isn't like the "original" games, so people don't like it.
Basically all the "true fans" try to find a reason to hate everything. (True fans should actually like the series they're playing, not purposely picking out things on what they hate in it.)

 

[Troykv]

Fire Emblem fans just love complaining. Awakening was one of the most hated games in the series because it was too easy, with casual mode and pairing up. Both of which are features you don't even need to use. Sacred Stones was hated for having a world map which I found extremely helpful, but it isn't like the "original" games, so people don't like it.
Basically all the "true fans" try to find a reason to hate everything. (True fans should actually like the series they're playing, not purposely picking out things on what they hate in it.)

The people always see some thing to hate... But also Awakening makes the franchise more... "weeb" ... everyone have their opinions.

Now some opinion that I see:

Thraccia is probably the game with the better map design... Is hard... and doesn't have particulary strong enemies the majority of the time.

 

[shane3x]

yes, hate is a strong word, that's why i used it, because i meant it. all i meant by quoting you is that you is that you shouldn't speak for a group of people as a whole when there will always be a minority.

Well, if hate is the accurate descriptor you'd use that says more then anything I could ever put into words and speaks for itself really. *Hate* is the minority.

Hate: "feel an extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward x"

 

[FlynnCL]

I must have had good level up RNG for my Roy as he was pretty useful for most of the game. What I mostly disliked is that I had trouble finding much personality in him. He was just as generic as a Lord could be in a game that was kind-of monotonous. I still think he's cool, though.

I played Fire Emblem 7 a few days later and it was a significant improvement. Eliwood was a really likeable Lord that I ended up caring about. It might be my new favourite Fire Emblem (previously it was 12).

I can't give reasons for thinking Roy's cool. He's just a character that's mostly boring but you still like.

 

[DavemanCozy]

Actually Ike isn't exacty over powerful in FE9 in the first levels (Marth Style Base Stats), but gets better because the game is easy and promotes soon.

FE10!Ike is OP in all the freaking game (unless you sleep him xD)

Yeeeep, Ike is hella dumb in Radiant Dawn. He only gets better as soon as he gets axes and makes the Black Knight look like scrap metal by just wielding a D-rank Hammer.
The only unit better than him is Haar.

I've been looking for a Japanese copy of FE9, I've heard that the hard mode of that game is actually challenging. I wish they hadn't dumbed down the difficulty in the NA version.

 

[Space Stranger]

Now the best lords in the series are Ike, Sigurd, Hector, and Ephriam.

Roy's late promotion and average growths screw him over in FE6.

 

[Formaldehyde]

From someone who plays Fire Emblem about as much as normal people breath, he's just a liability to the army more than an asset, you have to use him and have to baby sit him for the majority of the game, when he upgrades he's amazing but just far to late in the game to bother even counting.

He's also a shell of his amazing Father. (Sorry Roy)

 

[Ura]

From someone who plays Fire Emblem about as much as normal people breath, he's just a liability to the army more than an asset, you have to use him and have to baby sit him for the majority of the game, when he upgrades he's amazing but just far to late in the game to bother even counting.

He's also a shell of his amazing Father. (Sorry Roy)

> Berates Roy for his stats

> Praises Eliwood

 

[Formaldehyde]

> Berates Roy for his stats

> Praises Eliwood

Eliwood and Ninian A ranked together let me breeze through any challenge the poor black fang send my way.

Never had this privilege with poor Roy.

 

[StrikeBlade]

So, after Roy came out, I saw this thread and I've been skimming it for a while. I decided to play Fire Emblem 6 myself and see what side of this I fell on. Im not far into the game at all, So my opinions may change as I delve more into this.

Personality wise, Roy isnt... Incredible? I see what they're going for, he's supposed to be a passionate young man, doing what he thinks is right, even if it isnt always the most logical plan. In Chapter 3 he literally wants to go storm an enemy stronghold with the help of a local thief who knows the lay of the land. Not a terrible strategy, but the whole raid is a bad idea to begin with. STILL, He's just a boy. He's just not experienced.

I think a big part of why people think he's bland is because he has the same vapid expression on his face all the time. You really have to try and pull the expression from the text, because everyone seems pretty wooden otherwise. The game may have benefited from multiple expressions...

In terms of gameplay, he seems fine. I've played FE1 and 3, and Awakening, and even though he doesn't seem as invincible as Chrom or Lucina, he's at least nimble. He dodges all the time, and deals a lot of damage. He still has to be protected though, because unlike Chrom he cant take on entire armies by himself. But he sure can hold his own against tougher units like Armor Knights.

I'm not sure I understand yet why he's considered so bad.

 

[Ura]

So, after Roy came out, I saw this thread and I've been skimming it for a while. I decided to play Fire Emblem 6 myself and see what side of this I fell on. Im not far into the game at all, So my opinions may change as I delve more into this.

Personality wise, Roy isnt... Incredible? I see what they're going for, he's supposed to be a passionate young man, doing what he thinks is right, even if it isnt always the most logical plan. In Chapter 3 he literally wants to go storm an enemy stronghold with the help of a local thief who knows the lay of the land. Not a terrible strategy, but the whole raid is a bad idea to begin with. STILL, He's just a boy. He's just not experienced.

I think a big part of why people think he's bland is because he has the same vapid expression on his face all the time. You really have to try and pull the expression from the text, because everyone seems pretty wooden otherwise. The game may have benefited from multiple expressions...

In terms of gameplay, he seems fine. I've played FE1 and 3, and Awakening, and even though he doesn't seem as invincible as Chrom or Lucina, he's at least nimble. He dodges all the time, and deals a lot of damage. He still has to be protected though, because unlike Chrom he cant take on entire armies by himself. But he sure can hold his own against tougher units like Armor Knights.

I'm not sure I understand yet why he's considered so bad.

Again, FE fans resent any lord that isn't a slaughtering machine (cough Hector Ephraim cough). Roy being in Smash Bros just happens to make him an easy target for being hated on.

 

[HalcyonDays]

Eliwood and Ninian A ranked together let me breeze through any challenge the poor black fang send my way.

Never had this privilege with poor Roy.

You...are you one of those people who duplicates rare candies and masterballs once you get to Cinnabar Island?

 

[StrikeBlade]

Again, FE fans resent any lord that isn't a slaughtering machine (cough Hector Ephraim cough). Roy being in Smash Bros just happens to make him an easy target for being hated on.

I think regardless of his source material, Roy's character design is by and large one of the best, if not THE best in the whole FE series.

His colors are striking, the fire motif is evident, he looks very regal and fancy.

He's just cool imo.

 

[~Neutral~]

I think it's more than just the Fire Emblem series, overall two things. The first being that Sakurai was in a rush and specifically mentioned that he made a bunch of clones in order to increase the roster that otherwise would of been very small in Melee, and the overall trend is that the clone characters get a lot of hate (poor Ganondorf). The second being Roy's poor performance in the competitive scene (granted it's not NEARLY as bad as others), so both of these points combined into Roy being a wannabe Marth due to Melee favoring Marth's playstyle for the most part, and since its been several years and Roy didn't make a return to Brawl. That further supported the case that Roy was just an unnecessary character to some people. So in conclusion it just stuck into peoples mindsets and they never appreciated the character because everybody always associated him as that wannabe Marth, or Ginger Marth, as shown here. Lol.

But really I never thought of it this way. Yea he was clearly a lower tier character, but competitive mentality aside I always thought of Roy as a really awesome character in the Nintendo/Fire Emblem universe, and that's why I mained him back then. After all Smash Bros is supposed to be a celebration of all its awesome franchises aside from a competitive fighting game.

Also don't forget that Roy first made his appearance well before the Fire Emblem games in the US, so that's why I can safely make this assumption that Smash Bros damaged his reputation.

 

[Ura]

I think regardless of his source material, Roy's character design is by and large one of the best, if not THE best in the whole FE series.

His colors are striking, the fire motif is evident, he looks very regal and fancy.

He's just cool imo.

Not to mention he's not a blue haired sword user.

 

[Croph]

I've met many people that like Roy and FE6. I guess there seems to be a lot of loud people in the West who like very powerful Lords. Japan, on the other hand, likes Roy, but they also like all Lords. It's a shame some people care too much about whether the Lord is a one-man army or not and disregard everything else. It's a shame some people don't take the time to go over support convos, the story, and try to interpret themes being presented in the game. I mean, this is why we have this problem to began with?

Ah well, I don't put a huge emphasis on character stats, and Roy's far from bland imo. An FE6 remake would be awesome though~

 

[Smash Arena]

There's no question. He's the best character in Fire Emblem. He's our boy. You don't even have to play a Fire Emblem game to know that. I've never played one, and I know Roy is everyone's boy. Roy is love, Roy is life.

 

[Quillion]

You know, the hacking community for the GBA Fire Emblem games is very well-developed.

Can we ask one of the more active, prolific hackers to make a patch for (English) Binding Blade that makes Roy good (and optionally gives him more personality)?

At least people who want to have an awesome Roy in his home game could have that option.

 

[HalcyonDays]

You know, the hacking community for the GBA Fire Emblem games is very well-developed.

Can we ask one of the more active, prolific hackers to make a patch for (English) Binding Blade that makes Roy good (and optionally gives him more personality)?

At least people who want to have an awesome Roy in his home game could have that option.

Pretty sure I've seen an FE6 rebalance (ala SD:Remix) floating around somewhere out there. Might want to check out Serenes Forest, for that.

As for the re-writing of FE6, haven't seen one of those yet, other than the usual translation patch.

 

[asia_catdog_blue]

Roy had bad stats for a lord, a bland personality, and his game was generally dull and a rehash of Shadow Dragon.

Didn't help that most fans in the west don't like Shadow Dragon either.

 

[Troykv]

Didn't help that most fans in the west don't like Shadow Dragon either.

Well, FE6 al least improves everything in relation with Dark Dragon and Sword of Light xD

 

[Formaldehyde]

You...are you one of those people who duplicates rare candies and masterballs once you get to Cinnabar Island?

No just someone blinded by my love for Eliwood.

 

[MechanicalRhythm]

So the first main thing that most people can agree with about Roy is that, as a unit, he is the worst lord in the series. Only FE5 Leif really contests this title. Even Shadow Dragon Marth is better because he gets to open chests, has good movement range, and an infinite use weapon. 30 levels does make him kinda weak in the endgame but you don't tend to worry about it because that's when everyone else is kicking ass. Roy starts off awful and stays that way for 90% of the game (assuming you actually meet the requirements to unlock the last 9%). He gets the worst lord starting weapon (at least to my knowledge) as his Rapier is a mere shadow of his dad's, and even that wasn't exactly amazing compared to what other lords get. His growth rates aren't exactly awful, but they're really nothing to shout about- his dad did better- , and while yes on average 20/20 Roy can come close to capping most of them... you realise he has to get to 20/20 right? His super late forced promotion time means you will NEVER ever see those 20/20 stats come to fruition unless you make him practically solo the last chapter(s) for it.

Assuming you unlocked and completed ALL of the side chapters, you have like 5 maps on which you can make use of god tier Roy -or rather, you're making use of God tier Sword of Seals but not too much or it breaks and then Roy is back to being insignificant again. If you didn't unlock the true ending? You have one chapter to make use of this. One. And at that point, you shouldn't need a super awesome kill everything character. You have Miledy and Rutger and Karel and Gonzales and Percival and a host of other excellent units to go an smash stuff with. It's not like the start of the game where you're forced to use crappy Marcus and your cavaliers to survive. If Roy was good at that point it'd be a different story. But as it stands, to date Roy is considered easily the worst lord in the series for these reasons. If for some reason he were able to promote say, 3 or 4 chapters before he normally does, he would be a LOT better. A lot of what makes him bad is just the super late promotion. It's really crippling.

As a character... Roy gets a lot of flack for just being a very plain protagonist with nothing much to speak of about him. Someone earlier in this thread said there was an awful lot of his character lost in the fan translation and actually I think that's a decent possible explanation of why people dislike him a lot here. I don't buy this "Westerners only like OP units" because Lyn is also considered one of the worst lords and people love her to death, Chrom is actually one of the stronger Lords and people are kinda eh on him, and as for Sigurd the common consensus from what I can tell is that he's the best lord unit FE has ever had but a really craptastic cliche personality. And people don't give Leif nearly as much grief as Roy gets. People over here love Hector because he pretty much just goes "**** you I do what I like" and then kicks some ass, like really he's the biggest badass FE ever had. It's not hard to imagine why that would appeal to us more than the japanese. The fact that the first half of Hector Hard Mode is basically impossible without him is just like adding a crazy straw to your favourite milkshake.

 

[Troykv]

So the first main thing that most people can agree with about Roy is that, as a unit, he is the worst lord in the series. Only FE5 Leif really contests this title. Even Shadow Dragon Marth is better because he gets to open chests, has good movement range, and an infinite use weapon. 30 levels does make him kinda weak in the endgame but you don't tend to worry about it because that's when everyone else is kicking ***. Roy starts off awful and stays that way for 90% of the game (assuming you actually meet the requirements to unlock the last 9%). He gets the worst lord starting weapon (at least to my knowledge) as his Rapier is a mere shadow of his dad's, and even that wasn't exactly amazing compared to what other lords get. His growth rates aren't exactly awful, but they're really nothing to shout about- his dad did better- , and while yes on average 20/20 Roy can come close to capping most of them... you realise he has to get to 20/20 right? His super late forced promotion time means you will NEVER ever see those 20/20 stats come to fruition unless you make him practically solo the last chapter(s) for it.

Assuming you unlocked and completed ALL of the side chapters, you have like 5 maps on which you can make use of god tier Roy -or rather, you're making use of God tier Sword of Seals but not too much or it breaks and then Roy is back to being insignificant again. If you didn't unlock the true ending? You have one chapter to make use of this. One. And at that point, you shouldn't need a super awesome kill everything character. You have Miledy and Rutger and Karel and Gonzales and Percival and a host of other excellent units to go an smash stuff with. It's not like the start of the game where you're forced to use crappy Marcus and your cavaliers to survive. If Roy was good at that point it'd be a different story. But as it stands, to date Roy is considered easily the worst lord in the series for these reasons. If for some reason he were able to promote say, 3 or 4 chapters before he normally does, he would be a LOT better. A lot of what makes him bad is just the super late promotion. It's really crippling.

As a character... Roy gets a lot of flack for just being a very plain protagonist with nothing much to speak of about him. Someone earlier in this thread said there was an awful lot of his character lost in the fan translation and actually I think that's a decent possible explanation of why people dislike him a lot here. I don't buy this "Westerners only like OP units" because Lyn is also considered one of the worst lords and people love her to death, Chrom is actually one of the stronger Lords and people are kinda eh on him, and as for Sigurd the common consensus from what I can tell is that he's the best lord unit FE has ever had but a really craptastic cliche personality. And people don't give Leif nearly as much grief as Roy gets. People over here love Hector because he pretty much just goes "**** you I do what I like" and then kicks some ***, like really he's the biggest badass FE ever had. It's not hard to imagine why that would appeal to us more than the japanese. The fact that the first half of Hector Hard Mode is basically impossible without him is just like adding a crazy straw to your favourite milkshake.

People love Lyn's Legs and Jiggie animation (?)

 

[Quillion]

No just someone blinded by my love for Eliwood.

How can you like a lord who can't even lift his own signature weapon?

 

[Troykv]

How can you like a lord who can't even lift his own signature weapon?

True, Durandal is too big like Ridley only look the sprite that Eliwood use with the Durandal xD

 

[MagiusNecros]

How can you like a lord who can't even lift his own signature weapon?

He had a cool crit animation for his rapier.

Still nothing beats Hector with Armads. Or any General class unit in the game with CHAIN LOCKED GAUNTLETS.

And how the ground SHOOK with every STEP they TOOK.

 

[Emblem Lord]

Roy is ok. He is just a little too brash for my liking.

I really like Chrom. He is an alpha male. Follows his gut and doesnt question himself. He is a natural born monarch.

 

[IrkenPPG]

Roy haters before Roy was released: Really Sakurai, Marth is already crap, now this.
After release: Finally we have a good swordsman in the game

 

[Iron Maw]

Roy got 1st place popularity.

Here's the link to the website in Japanese: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/afej/k_tohyo/01.html

Actually in most recent popularity poll on the series from Famitsu (released just before Fates) doesn't even have him the top 10:

And Famitsu scores don't really mean anything and unlikely to often be at odds with fan reception. I think Roy generally liked in the context of Smash, but rarely ever the FE series. You can't ignore how bad he is there compared to every Lord before and after him

 

[Quillion]

Actually in most recent popularity poll on the series from Famitsu (released just before Fates) doesn't even have him the top 10:

And Famitsu scores don't really mean anything and unlikely to often be at odds with fan reception. I think Roy generally liked in the context of Smash, but rarely ever the FE series. You can't ignore how bad he is there compared to every Lord before and after him

Whoa, Ike is #1? Awesome!

Also, the poll that @ HalcyonDays is talking about is only based on Binding Blade. So it helped that even though Roy is bland, everyone else is even more so.

 

[Troykv]

Whoa, Ike is #1? Awesome!

Also, the poll that @ HalcyonDays is talking about is only based on Binding Blade. So it helped that even though Roy is bland, everyone else is even more so.

Ike is loved for (almost) everybody! In the West, in the East... everywhere.

The only characters that actually give me a weird surprise to see here are Hector and a lesser extent Finn... But... still the number that I see don't are too high... So... yeah, this probably doesn't reflect the fan reception...

Except in Ike's case!

Remember... He fight for his friends

 

[Ura]

Again, more crappy reasons haters use to hate on Roy. It's amazing to see how FE can be my favorite Nintendo franchise yet still be the same series with the worst friggin community that worships their overrated lord and savior Hector.

I can't even fathom how much I resent this stupid community.

 

[Lady Kuki]

It's already been said, but he's hated mostly due to his lackluster stats and nonexistent personality.

You know, the funny thing I found about Roy is, that he kinda has similarities to Charizard. Both are some of the more popular characters in their series, both have (admittedly) nice designs, both are weak and both have fire powers, lol.

To be honest, I do like Roy, but not as much as like say, Eliwood even though most people would argue that he is not much better. *shrug*