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Roy's Our Boy (or is he?)


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Boy Roy is kind of the worst lord isn't he? from a character perspective, he's very generic, he's just sort of a noble, unconflicted good guy prince, with no strong motivations save for honor and duty and yeah it's probably because the game was never localized, that would be a fine counter-argument until you consider that stats wise he's bottom tier until his own game until receiving the sword of seals, anybody have similar complaints about the other protagonists? certainly not Ike or Lyn, Lucina, or Seliph, from a character perspective the original version of Marth is comparably flat but at least he's useful in battle, and usually the writers will use the support system as a way to provide exposition and flush out the characters, a great idea, but, i'm not sure to what extent it helps roy, shannas is good from a characterization standpoint, but of the handfull i've read i know Roy pressures himself to be a good leader, to act honorably, and to be a great warrior maybe i just don't like him, i don't know, he's great in smash though...

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Roy had the bad luck to star in a game who's method of storytelling didn't age very well. It hurts Roy that he only has Merlinus and Guinevere to talk to and that the supports are so basic because it were the first time supports were ever written. 

However I wouldn't say Roy is generic. What helps Roy stands apart is that he's a brains over brawns lord. He's depicted as pretty clever and tactical in his decision making skill but not a very good fighter. And this fits very well with a lord who's just a 15 year old boy who got dragged out of his studies to lead an army. The supports also play with the implication Roy's actually pretty insecure about this himself. Wolts support gives us a hint that Roy would really prefer staying a boy a little longer rather than turning into a man as he's frustrated with Wolt treating him as his lord rather than acting like the childhood friends they used to be. 

I like Roy being weak from a gameplay standpoint because it actually suits him very well. The stats are used to tell a story about a weak lord who has to use his wits to get by and is very successful in doing this. 

But Roy is indeed a little bare bones and this must eventually be addressed in a remake. There is enough to Roy already that I think this will be very successful. 

Edited by Etrurian emperor
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1 hour ago, SamP832 said:

noble, unconflicted good guy prince,

I read to this point and realized, you've never read his supports have you?

*keeps reading*

Okay, apparently you have but... how can you say he's unconflicted even after reading them?  Roy's a bit different from most lords in most of his personal struggles and feelings are confined to his supports since he doesn't want to lower morale.  I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily, it's clearly IS trying to encourage the use of the Support system.  He could definitely use a bit more showing with his character, though.

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2 hours ago, Glaceon Mage said:

I read to this point and realized, you've never read his supports have you?

*keeps reading*

Okay, apparently you have but... how can you say he's unconflicted even after reading them?  Roy's a bit different from most lords in most of his personal struggles and feelings are confined to his supports since he doesn't want to lower morale.  I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily, it's clearly IS trying to encourage the use of the Support system.  He could definitely use a bit more showing with his character, though.

that's actually a good point, his character is that of a leader, trying to maintain strength despite his youth an inexperience trying to maintain an ere of confidence, thanks man, you added some perspective to the discussion

 

you do have a point that his characterization was most likely limited do to the experimental nature and roy among others would certainly benefit from a remake, also something i never considered is that roy is to my knowledge the youngest of the Fire Emblem protagonists (How old is Micaiah from FE 10) and thus his base stats reflect his inexperience, which is interesting from a game design perspective, I think that Fe6 was an odd title for the franchise you know? it was on a new engine, it was slightly more kid-friendly being on the GBA and ot was the first one Shozo Kaga had no involvement in, as a result it has some balancing issues and a story that feels almost like a reinterpretation of the first Fire Emblem, and doesn't age well, however it provides a unique experience to the series, and having roy a little weaker early on provides an edge to the early tutorial based mission, I heard it also takes some story elements from the scraped N64 game, which is unrelated to tier ring saga (?) I dunno, thanks for the insight

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Roy had the bad luck to star in a game who's method of storytelling didn't age very well. It hurts Roy that he only has Merlinus and Guinevere to talk to and that the supports are so basic because it were the first time supports were ever written. 

However I wouldn't say Roy is generic. What helps Roy stands apart is that he's a brains over brawns lord. He's depicted as pretty clever and tactical in his decision making skill but not a very good fighter. And this fits very well with a lord who's just a 15 year old boy who got dragged out of his studies to lead an army. The supports also play with the implication Roy's actually pretty insecure about this himself. Wolts support gives us a hint that Roy would really prefer staying a boy a little longer rather than turning into a man as he's frustrated with Wolt treating him as his lord rather than acting like the childhood friends they used to be. 

I like Roy being weak from a gameplay standpoint because it actually suits him very well. The stats are used to tell a story about a weak lord who has to use his wits to get by and is very successful in doing this. 

But Roy is indeed a little bare bones and this must eventually be addressed in a remake. There is enough to Roy already that I think this will be very successful. 

 

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On 8/12/2018 at 12:41 PM, SamP832 said:

Boy Roy is kind of the worst lord isn't he? from a character perspective, he's very generic, he's just sort of a noble, unconflicted good guy prince, with no strong motivations save for honor and duty and yeah it's probably because the game was never localized, that would be a fine counter-argument until you consider that stats wise he's bottom tier until his own game until receiving the sword of seals, anybody have similar complaints about the other protagonists? certainly not Ike or Lyn, Lucina, or Seliph, from a character perspective the original version of Marth is comparably flat but at least he's useful in battle, and usually the writers will use the support system as a way to provide exposition and flush out the characters, a great idea, but, i'm not sure to what extent it helps roy, shannas is good from a characterization standpoint, but of the handfull i've read i know Roy pressures himself to be a good leader, to act honorably, and to be a great warrior maybe i just don't like him, i don't know, he's great in smash though...

some people aren't really fond of him maybe because he might be too young for the role he has to take, so probably having a kid leading an entire army isn't really realistic. even Marth had to flee his country to survive and train for some years in order to mature before trying to get back his homeland.

they could have come up with a more complex story involving his family in order to give Roy a better purpose to fight, rather than just being "i'm a good guy that fights the bad guys for the good of people", 'cause that's really too generic.

he could have been a better character if he was a bit older, and with more reasons to fight.

Edited by Fenreir
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12 minutes ago, Fenreir said:

some people aren't really fond of him maybe because he might be too young for the role he has to take, so probably having a kid leading an entire army isn't really realistic. even Marth had to flee his country to survive and train for some years in order to mature before trying to get back his homeland.

they could have come up with a more complex story involving his family in order to give Roy a better purpose to fight, rather than just being "i'm a good guy that fights the bad guys for the good of people", 'cause that's really too generic.

he could have been a better character if he was a bit older, and with more reasons to fight.

I don't think Roy's youth is all that problematic. He has the position of the youngest lord but we shouldn't take this too far either. Most lords are on the young side with some of them barely being older than Roy. I believe Leif is 15 as well, Marth is only a year older than Roy and Ike is 17 which isn't that old either. I'm not sure how old the twins are but they probably aren't quite adults themselves either. 

I also wouldn't say its unrealistic. Historically speaking teenagers have been known to lead troops or even armies. Its not a frequent occurrence but it did happen and usually for the same reason as Roy, they just happened to be the most suited nobles available for whatever reason. 

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44 minutes ago, Fenreir said:

some people aren't really fond of him maybe because he might be too young for the role he has to take, so probably having a kid leading an entire army isn't really realistic. even Marth had to flee his country to survive and train for some years in order to mature before trying to get back his homeland.

they could have come up with a more complex story involving his family in order to give Roy a better purpose to fight, rather than just being "i'm a good guy that fights the bad guys for the good of people", 'cause that's really too generic.

he could have been a better character if he was a bit older, and with more reasons to fight.

Alexander the great started in his teens, but it does kinda scream adolescent power fantasy

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I think Roy also had bad luck in that the GBA games are a numbers game, instead of the gameplay complexity that was offered especially in Fates Conquest. I know Corrin is much better regarded from a gameplay perspective due to his/her utilities/skills both influencing outcomes in and out of battle. If anything, I'd like a revisit on the strategist-Lord archetype and provide more gameplay options to encourage teamwork in general, because we've seen many cases of one-mannable Lords, which is just unrealistic in warfare of any kind. More on my topic: 

 

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6 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I don't think Roy's youth is all that problematic.

well, in terms of realism, it is an issue when many of the enemies you're fighting are double your size. but then again, it's just a JRPG, so whatever.

same goes for tactical planning, as he may not have enough battle experience due to his age, but i suppose in that case Marcus and the others could have helped with that.

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15 hours ago, Fenreir said:

many of the enemies you're fighting are double your size. but then again, it's just a JRPG, so whatever.

 

 

on a similar note, zI love in  games like Borderlands or fallout how you level up and your gun itself does more damage like maybe in fantasy rpgs, you can argue they are getting better, learning new techniques, it's a skill and an art form but with a gun, shooting someone in the head is gonna have the same effect either way, it's a gun, it's the same at level 1 and level 100, bullets don't become more effective if your quote "Skill improves" your aim can get better I guess and you get used to the recoil but it's just kinda silly

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