Goddamned Bats: The "Fly Lizards" enemies, who look like bats and often come in trios. They are weak, but have a good evasion rate and will nearly always cast a wind elemental spell that put you characters to sleep.
The Support-Type units cannot attack enemies or open treasure chests. Consequently, they gain experience points at a much slower rate than the others, and thus become under-leveled (even if you use their heal/status buff skills at every turn, it's not as effective as attacking an stronger enemy) and can be easily killed-off by any enemy who menage to get close to them.
Rene is an exception, as her "Dig" skill, used for searching buried treasure, don't require her to be near enemies or the other party members.
Really, almost any non-plot character can be this, due to the high chance of being Killed Off for Real if they get defeated. This leaves only a handful of characters note (Kyril, Seneca, Andarc, Corselia, Akaghi, Mizuki, Busk, Coop, Flare, Lino, Lazlo, Kika, Frederica, Ornela, Simeon, Lalacle) to use out of close to fifty.
Obvious Judas: Iskas, the smug silver-haired arms dealer interested in Rune Cannons who suddenly disappears with the Evil Eye after Kyril helps him to find it, turning out to be evil is hardly a surprise.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: Tactics is a direct sequel to Suikoden IV and is much harder due to being a tactical RPG instead of having turn-based battles. Also, certain characters can be Killed Off for Real if they fall in battle.
Tear Jerker: Chapter 3 sends you volleys of it. It's just a normal pirate vs pirate attack at first, but...
First, Steele proves himself to be a nasty piece of work. After being breached a bit, he had Walter turned into a mindless Fish Monster right in front of Kyril, and Walter ended up proceeding to attack and traumatize Kyril for life with Andarc only being able to intervene in time to deliver Mercy Kill on Walter. And Steele's response is basically laughing his ass off, to the anger of both Edgar and Brandeau.
... Did we say Brandeau? Wasn't that name familiar for Suikoden IV players as that one Ax-Crazy pirate wielding the Rune of Punishment? Here, he used to be sane and a loyal friend of Edgar and Kika, even trying to protect Kyril from being attacked by the now-monster Walter. This is his Start of Darkness and Trauma Conga Line: After he cornered Steele, the latter then used the Rune of Punishment that ended up blowing the ship up. In process, he lost his right eye and Edgar, his best friend, was killed and then, the Rune of Punishment chose him as the next host, with Steele taunting that he'll get consumed and destroyed, just like him. On top of that, his own right-hand-man, Peck, was transformed into a goblin-like creature due to being near the Rune Cannon during the explosion. At that point, Brandeau just felt like he had no right to face Kika and her friends again, so he just kept the promise of depositing Edgar's corpse in a chest to be sent to Kika and then left forever with Peck as his sole companion, his guilt, trauma and the Rune eventually consuming him into the Ax-Crazy pirate that Lazlo encountered in IV. All it took was just one bad day...
And then when finally Edgar's chest reached the Nest of Pirates, the whole crews mourn. Kika even shed her badass pirate queen image to just mourn and cry on Edgar's demise, and she'd never see Brandeau again.
"Silent Lake", a wide-ranged Flowing Rune spell used by late game enemies that causes the silence status and gives water affinity to a good range of the battlefield.
The "rocket punch attack" from the Obel Ruins Golem. It hits hard and, unlike any other attack, you cannot see its reach range, making it difficult to avoid.
That One Sidequest: Guild Quests involving the Obel Ruins are either hard, tedious or just plain repetitive. The ruins have five floors and when you complete it for the first time, the game warps you back to the surface and open new elemental chambers. There are two types of quests involving it: Searching for buried items using Rene's "Dig" skill, and getting "Dragon Meat" item drops from dragon enemies that are only found at the elemental chambers, at the bottom of the dungeon.
The Un-Twist: Heinz spies on the party during his introduction, is a jerk to Yohn and plots to kidnap Corselia. You would expect him to either have a change of heart or just become an Obvious Judas like Iskas. However, neither ends up happening, as he leaves pacifically after his offer to Kyril is turned down, only to be killed off-screen by some mooks.
