So after about a month of training these two, I think most of us can say that they don't do too well in the world of equipment like we hoped they would. I'll give my final thoughts below.
Roy
A good character gone to waste, thanks to amiibo' influence and AI. Roy here focuses on all the wrong things so much that he has little to no room for improvement outside of adding bonuses that compensate for his AI flaws. Especially for his incredibly short ranged forward air, which he likes to spam, a lot. Since he can't space this move, he'll just hit with the sour spot about 90% of the time lol
Speaking of aerials, Roy doesn't really put his other aerials to use like he should. In fact, Roy choses very poor options over things that would really help to become great. Instead of focusing on getting true combos for damage, he would rather walk up, and pummel a couple times before completely dropping what should of been an easy 20+%. Instead of using neutral air for spacing like he should, he still chooses to use forward air (which is leagues worse than neutral air and gets him KO'd sometimes).
And don't even get me started on the Blazer spam problems.
Minerva Seyfarth and Hai The Gamer know what I'm talking about here, right?
Now, there are a couple character design related things that keep him from being the very best that he could, but the one that stands out the most is his very lackluster recovery. You either need to invest speed points into Roy so he can at least get another chance, or insta death if he's sent too far. It's not at the extent Little Mac has, but its still a problem.
Another one would be that his most effective moves are better up close- which isn't a bad thing; given that most amiibo fights are fought in close quarters. But this does get him grabbed a lot, so Improved Escapability is an equipment bonus I recommend if you have it.
This doesn't mean that Roy doesn't have his strengths, which he does, and he has quite a few useful ones. For starters, he's extremely fast in both running speed and attack speed. Mix that in with his up close and personal playstyle and you've got yourself one heck of a deadly fighter. Speaking of deadly, Roy is strong, like, really strong. Roy's damaging capabilities are among the best in the game if he can get up close for good %. His Smash Attacks are especially damaging, with his forward smash being equivalent to Little Mac's in power.
Little Mac's.
Forward smash is really powerful, and if Roy can land it, that's an easy 30+% if he has some attack points fed to him. And while this move is noticeably slower compared to Little Mac's in terms of cool-down time, it makes up for it in range and coverage.
If you're looking for some good moves for Roy to focus on, he doesn't have many 'go-to' moves quite frankly, but there a few that he benefits from the most. These include:
1. Forward Smash (his best move is also his greatest weakness)
2. Blazer (for tanking through attacks)
3. Up Smash (powerful out of shield option)
4. Grab (his grab combos are extremely damaging)
5. Neutral Air (his best aerial)
6. All Tilt Attacks (all have their uses and are really strong)
7. Jab (fast out of shield option, although a bit stubby)
As you can see, he has quite the variety to choose from here, but the main problem is how he uses these moves. If you can train him to balance out his usage of these moves, you've got yourself a capable fighter on your hands with a lot of potential. Even though Roy might have trouble landing some of these moves, when he does, its devastating.
All in all, Roy does show potential if you're willing to invest time into him, but with all the better fish in the pond, I don't blame you if you want to throw this one back.
Ryu
*sigh*
Ok, to be honest here, I was really hoping that the Ryu amiibo would focus on combo attacks n' such like the CPU does. He would've been legendary if he did that, but uh, NOPE.
The Ryu amiibo is something else, in that he never takes advantage of the fact that he has extremely damaging combo's that will easily give him a 25+% lead if he lands them. But since amiibo pick up from other characters and their playstyles, Ryu will completely brush off any true combo's taught to him when he reaches Lv.50 for more simpler playstyles. Like his fellow DLC Smasher that was released on the same day, he also likes to spam forward air.
While Ryu isn't exactly 'bad' because of this, it does leave a lot of potential behind and a lot of greatness to be had if would just learn these combos like he's supposed to. In fact, besides special inputs from time to time, Ryu won't combo at all, unless he's taught on a regular basis to do so. Which results in a lot of time and work that needs to be put into him in order for him to get good results.
What's worse is that Ryu has so much combo variety, its not even funny. And he just tosses it away too!
Ryu, in his character alone, has many notable strengths, such as amazing KO power, strong attacks, useful specials, a versatile and safe recovery (although a bit average), and pretty good ground mobility. With all these upsides though, he does have quite a few downsides.
The thing that especially catches my eye here, is the amount of freeze frames Ryu has in his attacks when they make contact with something. This attribute is really good for real players, as it gives them time to react and combo into things. In the amiibo world though, it actually does more harm than good. While it does keep opponents trapped in shields for longer (which gives Ryu a bit of grace if his attack is blocked), but it also can leave a larger window to get grabbed. Again, I recommend the Escape Artist equipment piece if you can find it.
Another thing I want to mention that might be a problem is his short range, and bad grab game. That's about it though. I guess if he whiffs something, its pretty punishable, but he's pretty safe most of the time.
Training up Ryu will take a lot of work, but he's pretty solid in the long run. Not anything amazing like he could be, but I bet he could take some of your best amiibo by surprise with proper training.