Demonic Spider: Fanged Silkmoth, full stop. Being a Boss in Mook Clothing in an early-game dungeon is one thing. Spamming mass-sleep-inducing attack every turn is another. Sure, there is Darkness Knight late game that can cause mass status effect (including confusion, which is worse than sleep), but the knight is in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon, so at least you're prepared.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Tsaubern and Buchse are pretty popular on Japanese fanbase. Also, Luo-Tao.
Fridge Logic: Okay, if the followers of the Order of the One True Way are supposed to accept every single thing as is, why force their ways on others? Why not accept that it was 'predetermined' for others to have their own ways? Lampshaded by Chrodechild after her fight with her sister.
Goddamned Bats: Practically everything in the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. They deal too much damage for mooks, award too little EXP, and you can't hoard their Shop Fodder drops, meaning that after a while, battling them is completely pointless.
There's Roberto's Tsundere tendencies, usually reserved for the main character, Jale's unquestioning loyalty and affection, also towards the main character, and Chrodechild and Fredegund's really, really close sisterly relationship, which is even mentioned by Asad.
Shams and Taj. Both are friendly loyal to each other, risking life and limb. Shams does his best to keep Taj happy. He goes so far as to order Taj not to touch a chronicle in case he becomes a starbearer because he wants to spare Taj the pain of knowing what happened to the Magedom. Taj, of course, isn't having it, and manages to convince his prince to let him. They have several moments where you can tell that if it was fully animated instead of sprites there would be hugging.
Moe: Manaril. Even in-universe, she causes numerous characters to devolve into Cuteness Proximity mode.
Narm: Unfortunately, the voice acting can cause some parts of the game to fall into Narm territory.
One hits especially hard at Ladzaa Fortress, almost sending Sieg into a Heroic BSoD.
Cougar, made worse by his people not remembering him when returns to them.
The destruction of the Magedom, along with its million inhabitants. Made even worse when you see Manaril´s reaction. Related to this one, there's a pair of nameless NPCs, a woman in the Magedom and her husband in Salsabil. If you talk to them, she's worried about him, and he's been putting a lot of effort into getting a present for her. If you talk to him after the Magedom is erased, he's forgotten why he wanted it. And wonders why he started crying when you asked about his wife: he's single, after all.
Scrappy Mechanic: Having to walk out of the dungeon manually rather than using an Escape Talisman when the other series have done it does get tiring.
The Coastal Cave, a confusing maze of dead ends and secret passages full of obnoxious enemies, and your party is fixed. Of that fixed party, one character has no skills at this point, one can't have his equipment changed, and only one has a heal spell.
And then there's Mt. Svatgol. Awesome Music aside, the level is a gigantic pain in the ass. To start, you're forced to take Vaslof with you. While he's a phenomenal character who hits like a truck, he's also very, very slow, meaning escaping enemies becomes nigh impossible — and since there are a lot of hidden passages in this dungeon filled with great equipment, that's a bad combination in a level with a high encounter rate in a game with an already annoying high encounter rate. It also doesn't help that the game subtly insists that you also take Zenoa with you for some extra scenes, who, like Vaslof, is also very good, but slow. God help you if you also take Resno, Vaslof's wife, who completes the trifecta for Mighty Glacier party status.
That One Sidequest: Namna is an annoying character to recruit, as he will only join you in a particular month.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The most common complaint heard when Suikoden fans unaware of the game hear of what this installment lacks or has changed. The removal of the different combat system for Duel Bosses and war battles and the fact that it takes place in an Alternate Continuity adds fuel to the fire.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The another worlds could have had a bigger role in the story, but Sieg can't cross the gateways for some reason.
Viewer Gender Confusion: Chrodechild's short hair and heavy armor have been known to throw off players until people start referring to her as "she."
