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The story
A post reminiscing about the strategy guide for “Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation” became a hot topic on 5ch’s Nanademo Jikkyo G (anything-goes live-commentary) board. Posters got fired up swapping memories about the guide and the game itself — questioning why the Paladin’s equipment was a bamboo spear and a loincloth, debating the merits of role-playing Hassan (a bruiser-type character) as the faith-based Paladin class, and reliving just how terrifying the Death Staff enemy was. Opinion was split on whether the guide “hid” the job class requirements on purpose or simply never figured them out.
What people said
They're not hiding it, they just didn't know 😤
It's not that they were allowed to hide it — more like they weren't allowed to publish it, I bet
You can shoot down a B-29 with that, can't you? (a dark joke referencing WWII-era propaganda about using bamboo spears against American bombers)
Terry as a Battle Master is basically résumé fraud
Hyped up (racy underwear) (angel leotard) (bunny suit)
True,
they'd sneak in surprisingly detailed lore about the towns and dungeons here and there, it was fun
Tact's hairstyle is even more unsettling
For a second I saw the DQ11 hero in there
Onion from hell
Feels like the class closest to Hero
Yeah I did lol
It's the biggest detour of a route though
Wasn't there a trap where Ranger wasn't listed or something?
Can you really come up with a convincing role-play reason for how Hassan suddenly found religious faith?
Just make him a Battle Master like normal.
It's muscle worship
Not many people can actually name the elements of Blaze Slash and Lightning Slash
It's the only one that learns Kafrizzle though
Slap an Echo Hat on it and it'll reliably one-shot an enemy every turn
The books probably made almost as much money as the games did
My game time was limited, so the rest of the time I just kept reading the strategy guide
Square: "The Paladin is a slaughterer of Dark Knights who poses as a hero while stealing his best friend's girlfriend."
Do these two companies have some kind of grudge against Paladins?
Don't just pull a jump and vanish on us (a jab at Kain the Dragoon from Final Fantasy IV, who keeps abandoning the party mid-battle using his Jump ability)
That… Dragoon guy?
They all breathe Icy Blizzard at once and wipe your whole party
I hate these guys too
They're so thin that a ton of them show up at once
Love how Hassan's steel nipples poke through even the thickest armor
Now that I think about it, if the armor fits Hassan perfectly it'd be way too baggy on everyone else, so you couldn't actually hand it down
Is it like a Saiyan battle suit that stretches to fit?
doesn't that leave the hero permanently underpowered?
For support there's the Dancer's Dazzle Dance, and for offense there's Moonsault, so it's probably still better than Ranger
It's basically just a shortcut to becoming Hero faster
Background and talking points
The reason strategy guides didn’t cover every job class requirement comes down to how they were made back then: writers worked on a tight turnaround timed to the game’s release, so guides could only include information locked in before the game’s specs were finalized. The thread was split on whether this counted as the guide “hiding” information or simply “not knowing” it, but either way it’s a telling anecdote about the limits of strategy guides in that era. It’s also worth noting that the frustration over the Paladin’s bamboo spear and loincloth outfit stems from a contrast with the heavily armored knight image the Paladin class carries in Square’s (now Square Enix’s) Final Fantasy series. A common point of confusion for readers: the equipment and character designs are specs set by the game itself (Enix), not something the strategy guide invented on its own.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “DQ6 Strategy Guide: “You Become a Hero by Mastering a Certain Advanced Class!”“.
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