Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii has explained that Dragon Quest's weakest weapon exists thanks to a limitation with the Famicom.
Speaking to Japanese outlet MagMix (and a big thanks to Automaton for the translation), Horii talks about the series' iconic Cypress Sick. This weapon is… well, a stick, but its lack of power has made it an icon of the series since it first showed up in Dragon Quest 2, and it has gone on to appear in a number of mainline and spinoff entries since, most recently in Dragon Quest 11. The humble stick is such a big deal that it also appeared in Nier Automata as a reference to the classic JRPG weapon.