Roy Bromwell (ロイ・ブロムウェル Roi Buromuweru) is a playable character from the Rival Schools series of 3D fighting games.
Biography[]
Appearance[]
Roy has short blond hair with long fringes on both sides of his hair and two upper fringes in the center of his head. His outfit consist of a red formal vest under a long sleeve white buttoned shirt which is folded below to his mid-arm with a long red tie on the collar of his button shirt. He wears a black belt to his waist, denim pants and black and red sneakers. He also wears black fingerless gloves and a silver watch on his left wrist.
Story[]
Background[]
Roy is the star quarterback of an unbeatable American football team seen as an idol by fellow male students in his home country. He's capricious, sometimes less than serious, and tries more than anyone else just to look sharp. Nonetheless, he is a frank person who dislikes cowardice. His hatred for Japan and its people stem from the fact that his grandfather would constantly tell him of how he lost his left leg during the Second World War.
Rival Schools: United by Fate[]
A rich foreign exchange student from the United States, Roy is often portrayed in the games as the rival to Batsu.
He is ordered by his father to investigate the school kidnappings, with Tiffany and Boman joining him. During their investigation, the American trio is defeated and brainwashed into becoming mindless servants to Justice High, but is eventually freed thanks to Batsu and his Taiyo High compatriots. After being saved by Batsu and his friends, Roy starts to rethink his personal perception about Japan and its people. His non-canonical ending in the game has him return to the United States, determined to change the way of thinking in his home country, and 30 years after the games take place, he is elected President of the United States.
Project Justice[]
In Project Justice, Roy, along with Tiffany, returns to Japan after learning and knowing of a new and dangerous threat to the schools. They show up in two of the storylines in the game; either helping Batsu and his friends in the Taiyo High story, or reuniting and joining up with Boman in the Pacific High story. The Pacific High ending has him return to the United States with Tiffany, more determined to change the world.
Gameplay[]
Arsenal, combat style, and fighting strategy[]
Due to the fact that Roy is an American football player, a number of his in-game special moves are modeled and named after elements of the sport. Interesting enough, his moves bear a striking resemblance to the moveset of SNK's mascot Terry Bogard of Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters fame.
(Analogy: Touchdown Wave--Power Wave; Twister Upper--Rising Tackle + Power Dunk; Dynamite Straight--Burning Knuckle; Dynamite Justice--Buster Wolf)
Special Moves[]
- Dynamite Straight (ダイナマイトストレート) - This is Roy's main special attack, wherein he delivers a fast charging punch that knocks the opponent a good distance away from him. It is very powerful, and its recovery delay is almost negligible. This move has an aerial version, which is as follows:
- Air Dynamite (エアダイナマイト) - Aerial version of the Dynamite Straight, and is an excellent Air Combo finisher. This has two versions:
Version One
Roy does a forward-rolling Dynamite Punch that knocks the opponent to the ground.
Version Two
Roy does a twirling Dynamite Punch that knocks the opponent away from him. The twirl is done in a similar fashion to Hinata's Sunrise Punch.
The latter is more powerful, but the former has higher chances of hitting the opponent; Roy will yell "I got it!" while executing either version of this move, as well as Dynamite Straight.
- Twister Upper (ツイスターアッパー) - Roy does a forward-jumping spinning uppercut. This is good as a Tardy Counter and an anti-air attack. Roy, however, is completely vulnerable to counterattacks while he is landing from the jump. In Project Justice, his jumping spinning uppercut becomes in a diagonal motion.
- Touchdown Wave (タッチダウンウェーブ) - Roy punches the ground, generating a column of energy directly in front of him. If it hits, it sends the opponent into the air. Because it has fast recovery, it is a better anti-air attack than Twister Upper. It may hit once or thrice, depending on the punch button pressed for this attack's button combination. If the player is fast enough, he can immediately follow with an Air Combo, but this is very hard to accomplish.
Burning Vigor Attacks[]
- Super Touchdown (スーパータッチダウン) - Powered version of the Touchdown Wave. Roy jumps forward and punches the ground, generating three columns of energy, each one generated in front of its precedent after the preceding wave dissipates. Startup is somewhat slow, and will entirely miss if done directly in front of the opponent.
- Triple Twister (トリプルツイスター) - Roy does three Twister Uppers. More hits can be scored by repeatedly pressing the punch button for this attack's button combination. It also has the same drawbacks as the Twister Upper, so it must be used with caution. Like his Twisted Upper in Project Justice, it becomes in diagonal motion with a yellow aura engulfing him.
- Dynamite Justice (ダイナマイトジャスティス) - Roy does a football tackle, followed by a Dynamite Straight that knocks the opponent into a random obstacle in the field, scoring a bonus hit. If all hits connect, this does massive damage. An excellent Tardy Counter that has fast startup and nearly negligible recovery delay.
Team-Up Technique[]
- Double Rising Tornado (Ｗライジングトルネード) - Roy and the active character do a vertical Twister Upper to the opponent. Of all the Team-Up techniques, this has the fastest startup; but if blocked, the opponent has ample time for a Tardy Counter.
Party-Up Technique[]
- Roy does the Triple Heaven's Cross.
Trivia[]
- The following details of Roy's life is as described:
- Roy lives alone in his father's holiday villa. In his home country, he lives with his parents and two older sisters, whose names and lifestyles remain undisclosed to this day.
- Aside from American football, Roy is also good in arm wrestling, in which he has a rival in Boman.
- He has no need for part-time jobs since his family is wealthy.
- He has satisfactory performance in almost any subject in school; there is no subject where he shows below-average academic performance.
- Roy, Tiffany, and Boman are the only non-Japanese playable characters in the Rival Schools games.
- His official epithet is "Strong-Armed American".
- As explained above, Roy bear a striking resemblance to Terry Bogard from SNK's Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters fighting games and several notable moves of the former's fighting style are very similar to the latter's.
- This is all intentional as Roy is not Capcom's first fighting game character with a strong resemblance to a SNK character; Dan Hibiki of Street Fighter fame was created as a spoof of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia from the Art of Fighting games. Unlike Dan however, Roy is not a joke character.
- During the translation phase for United by Fate, some of Roy's lines included English expletives that were removed prior to international release. Players with a keen ear, however, can hear them, since no English voice work was done. Other than that, his lines in the first game show how highly rude he was towards Japan and its people. In one instance, he called Hideo a "Japanese businessman", but the English script had him call the teacher a 'geek'. On top of that, he refers to Japan as "Batsu's country".
- In Project Justice, there had been no translation problems whatsoever regarding Roy, since it has been assessed that none of his lines were highly rude, due to the fact that his perception of Japan and its people has changed.
- Some of his moves may be based from that of Zero from the Mega Man X series, also produced by Capcom. One version of his Air Dynamite is roughly based on Zero's rolling slash techniques, while his Touchdown Wave and Super Touchdown involve punching the ground, similar to how Zero punches the ground to perform Giga Attacks. Moreover, both characters are voiced by Ryōtarō Okiayu.
Gallery[]
For more of this character, see their gallery.