OK, so I need to facepalm here. Don't know where my brain was, probably already on vacation...
I linked to the 32-bit version of libpcre.so, not the 64-bit.
I guess the mention of all the 32-compatibility requirements in the Stencyl installation instructions for Linux got my head stuck on 32-bit.
It is working now, thanks.
So, for openSUSE people, if you have a 64-bit installation, just create a link to /usr/lib64/libpcre.so
ln -s /usr/lib64/libpcre.so /usr/lib64/libpcre.so.3
I can build an rpm for openSUSE 64-bit if anybody is interested