When my brother and I unlocked the two Japanese unknowns in Melee, we instantly grew to liking them. My brother picked up Marth and I picked up Roy. Roy was generally more likable and memorable to me than Marth. I loved his fire element on his attacks and especially his voice clips. I also greatly preferred his "up close" playstyle to Marth's "tipper". My brother and I would always have
vs
matches on Temple with the Fire Emblem track playing, we always had fun. We generally agreed that Marth and Roy's differences balanced them to the point of being equal to each other.
Fast forward to recent years where I learned about the competitive Smash scene, it saddened me to learn that Roy was not as good as I always thought he was. That didn't mean I'd disown Roy, though. Even as a low-tier, Roy was still my favorite.
I didn't get Brawl until long after it's initial release. When I learned about and downloaded Project M, it made me appreciate Roy even more. The PMDT gave him so much love...gave him so many little additions to make him just that much better in the long run.
Fast forward again, to Summer of 2014. The entire roster of Smash 4 was leaked! I was one of the few who believed the leak from the beginning and never doubted it.
So, in that leaked roster, my boy was nowhere to be seen...I was extremely disappointed in his absence. Come Christmas, I received Smash 4 as a gift. The hype was real. So much great Smash content, new and old. It was sure a pleasure to see three of my favorite video game characters,
,
and
in the same game. It was like a childhood dream. But still, as great as Smash 4 was, it felt like it was missing something (or rather, someone)...
In the months following, I began to defend Roy online. It wasn't until then that I realized there was such a hatebase for certain Smash characters. I pushed through the "Roy is already in the game" jokes and "Roy is a terrible Marth clone" arguments. I felt attached to Roy, due to the good times I had playing as Roy in Melee. All of the haters treading on him hurt, and I had to defend him.
April Fool's day...there was a last hope. The Smash Ballot was introduced! I immediately voted for Roy, and so did my brother. I got a lot of people I knew to vote for Roy. Not soon after, Mewtwo was released. The update was quickly datamined and grew that small remaining hope. I then joined the Roy support thread here on Smashboards. It was better than being alone for the ride. Most predicted Roy's reveal to be in Nintendo's E3 Digital Event, but there was the Smash Direct which nobody saw coming. Roy seemed so close...
...and he was. He was leaked a day before the direct. I had so much trouble sleeping on that night, I couldn't wait for the Smash Direct. It seemed that Roy's reveal and release were inevitable. And on that Sunday afternoon, the journey came to an end. He was both revealed and released on that day. He was back, and better than before.
So, why do I like Roy, you ask? Because I liked him from the beginning. Even in Melee where he was a subpar clone of Marth, I still enjoyed him as a character. That attachment to a character is something that cannot be broken. Although many people are picking him up in Smash 4 because he's so great now, the true fans of Roy will always be the ones that stuck with him to the end, the ones who endured the jokes and arguments.
If you'd like a character to return, don't listen to the haters. Support your character, no matter how silly it may seem to others.
Simply put, Roy's our boy.
), but just seeing Roy's animations and designs in that game from my brother's playthrough a long time ago led me to fall in love with the character. And this was after I had seen FE7, so perhaps the fact he was a younger version of Eliwood(in my perspective at that time) may have had something to do with it.
)