Suikoden II/YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Jowy a Tragic Hero who is forced to fight his best friend or a stubborn idiot who chooses to prolong an unnecessary war instead of signing a peace treaty, suggesting a political union, or any of the other myriad options available to him out of pride and refusal to deviate from his original course?
Badass Decay: Neclord in Suikoden I was That One Boss, perhaps because of limited Rune usage, and the fact that you are stuck with carrying Viktor, Cleo and Hix with him (bad news if you haven't been training Viktor and Cleo, but especially Hix, who was just a newcomer), and he boasts very powerful attacks and mass healing spells were hard to come by (you basically have to stick one character with the Water Rune). In here, he's subsequently A LOT easier thanks to better Rune options, storywise having Sierra and Kahn gang up with him, you could put at most two out of Nanami, Kahn and/or Sierra into your Convoy, Magic being more powerful (and you can leave healing to Riou mostly). The only way you could screw up is if you burnt out all of your magic in the previous fight against the Stone Golem.
Complete Monster:
- Luca Blight. Arguably, the very worst Suikoden has to offer, and he even admits to being one in universe. Notable for the fact that this series pretty much has an aversion of this trope, preferring Gray and Gray Morality.
- Neclord.
- What about Gorudo?!
- And to a lesser extent, there's Darrel, Anabelle's father. What he did to Genkaku was extremely cruel, and it was all because he didn't want a war to end.
Crack Pairing: Due to Luca constantly referring anyone as pigs, fanarts usually depicted him being paired with pigs (to be ridden, to joke around with, or to butcher).
Crowning Music of Awesome: "Gothic Neclord" all the way!
Cult Classic
Draco in Leather Pants: Luca Blight is a thoroughly despicable human being who kills innocent people for nothing more than his own amusement. Hasn't stopped him from becoming arguably one of the most popular RPG villains of all time.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Viktor and Flik establish themselves as such herein.
- Georg Prime's first appearance in the Suikoden series was fairly brief; however, his badass abilities and intriguing past made him instantly popular.
Even Better Sequel: There are many fans who consider this game to be superior to the original, as well as the best in the series.
Evil Is Cool: Luca Blight pretty well cemented himself in this position given his Dying Moment of Awesome when finally killing him takes three different parties fighting him in quick succession, along with being a reasonably challenging fight while he's at it.
Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Rina, Jeane, Karen, Raura and Sierra Mikain.
Game Breaker:
- The Matilda Glitch is an infamous exploit that can be done right near the beginning of the game. Normally, the hero and their party are barred from passing through the Muse-Matilda border due to the warring factions at the time. However, by running up against the gate at the border, the player can push it like a box and move it forward, allowing them to get past it and enter the Matilda region. The enemies here are far and above the party's current level at that point, but if you can defeat a group of enemies (normally by spamming your most powerful magic attacks), your levels will shoot up by twenty or more.
  - Additionally, you can travel to the nearby Highway Village and get powerful accessories like the Fire Emblem, as well as recruit Humphrey and Futch by completing their sidequest. This nets you two characters who, depending on how much you leveled them in the previous game, may be leagues more powerful than anyone else in your army.
- It's possible to break the Rock Climbing game by exploiting savestates to get you further up the cliff by constantly resetting to get higher dice rolls. Doing so allows you to get several powerful items much earlier than normal, including the Goldlet (one of the best defensive items in the game), Taikyoku Wear, permanent stat boosts and party member-specific items that boost their Unite attacks.
- Knowledge of the trading system will allow the player to do things like buy Gold Bars from one village and sell them gobs of money (up to three times its value) in Highway Village long before the endgame, thereby trivializing the entire concept of earning money.
- Sheena can become one of these, and there's also Georg Prime to consider.
  - Killey, for the same reasons as Sheena, except he's even more powerful.
  - Recruiting the main character from the first game. The Soul Eater Rune is as awesome as ever.
  - Because of how the Rune Unites work, one can place a slower character in the first party slot to make the whole party cast up to five Rune Unites in one turn! In a game where mages are pretty useless late-game, this Good Bad Bug sure can deal insane amounts of damage that it could compare to the Double-Beat/Double-Strike/Violence/Kindness combo in terms of brokenness.
Goddamned Bats: Sirens and DoReMi elves. They sure can be taken down very easily but they can inflict a wide array of nasty status effects if not taken out right away. For a video game series that usually averts this trope, these sure annoy some players.
Les Yay: Jeane's relationship with Raura is the subject of much rumour and gossip at HQ.
Love to Hate: Ask any of Luca Blight's fans why they like him, aside from the Evil Is Cool above, it will be due to how appallingly and unapologetically evil he is.
Magnificent Bastard: Shu.
Memetic Badass: Georg Prime, but Luca Blight contests his title.
Moe: Nanami, Millie, Meg, Wakaba, Yuzu, Viki and Tomo. Taki's definitely one of the most lovable members of the army.
Moral Event Horizon: Luca Blight crosses it by instigating the massacre of the Unicorn Youth Brigade and putting the blame on Jowston soldiers, in order to restart the war between Highland and Jowston.
Player Punch:
- Nanami's sudden death. It's arguably one of the most upsetting examples in videogames, mostly because it happens quite late on in the game when the player/character relationaship is strong, and also because she's the mouthpiece for the (silent) hero..... until the inevitable happens.
- Pilika's life from meeting the hero to losing her voice is just the writers repeatedly socking the player in the gut.
The Scrappy: Hoi's not well liked, and it's not hard to see why.
- Zamza's not well liked for his arrogant personality.
Tastes Like Diabetes: Freed's relationship with Yoshino, according to Richmond.
That One Boss:
- Luca Blight. The fight requires you to use three groups of six party members. Without preparation, several of them will likely be underequipped and underleveled. Luca is easily the toughest boss in the game, with incredible physical and magical resistance, and high HP for when you fight him. If either of the first two groups are defeated too quickly, the third one will have a very long battle on their hands. To make matters worse, he attacks three times per round, and all of his attacks are very damaging, with two of his possible attacks being able to hit multiple party members at once.
That One Sidequest:
- Recruiting the Squirrel Squad is still an enormous pain in the ass, even after fans have had a decade and a half to decode the most efficient possible methods of doing so. In 1998? Good luck!
- Clive's sidequest, a Timed Mission where you have to track down Elsa. To complete it, you have to reach a small village west of the final dungeon under 20 hours.
- For Gordon to join, it is necessary to make 50,000 potch profit, purely from buy-low/sell-high trading at the various trade-posts throughout Dunan.
Tier-Induced Scrappy: Freed Yanamoto is a dutiful, eager-to-please man. But his stats are atrocious. Now, he isn't the worst character in the game, but he is required to be in your party on two separate lengthy occasions, which is why there's so much player hostility towards him.
Too Cool to Live: Genkaku, Anabelle and Elza.
- Maximilian dies of natural causes after the events of the game.
Ugly Cute: Chuchura. He is the plucky offspring of Rulodia and Abizboah.
The Woobie: Pilika.
Woolseyism: In one of Richmond's investigations, it's mentioned Tai Ho worked for Kun Tze from Suikoden I, who was called in that game Kun To.