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| Title | Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story |
| Developer | Waffle |
| Publisher | MangaGamer |
| Release Date | March 29th, 2018 |
| Genre | Eroge Visual Novel |
| Platform | PC, Steam |
| Age Rating | Adults Only |
| Official Website | |
This article is potentially NSFW, however steps are taken to reduce the chance of that. The game itself is 18+ and Adults Only, any links to the official website are also for Adults Only and NSFW. The interactions in the game are almost entirely vanilla other than a serious focus on lactation and unrealistic sized bosoms.
For better and for worse, Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story, is exactly as advertised by its title. But that is almost entirely for the better, especially when it comes to Eroge Visual Novels. Most people who enjoy these types of games really want to know what they are in for. Human sexuality is widely varied, and unlike more popular genres you are not going to see a lot of pre-release coverage telling you what to expect when it comes to your particular kinks of choice. Even more than the original Funbag Fantasy, which I wholeheartedly loved, the focus here is on massive breasts and anything that can be involved in them. The only part of the title that might be a little misleading is the Sideboob Story. While a clever alliteration, you might be surprised to see just how long this side story really is. There are only 3 different endings, with one being very obviously the canon ending, but all together the story took me around 30 hours to complete.
There are a few reasons that I wanted to cover this game a year after its initial release. Unfortunately I was involved in other things at the time, so I missed my chance to review this game originally. But now it has had a release on Steam a few weeks ago, and MangaGamer is also hard at work on releasing the full sequel. So I wanted to finally get around to, what I expected to be, the 1.5 entry into the franchise. Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story ended up being much more involved than I was expecting. It wasn’t quite as long as the massive original game, but the original is also one of the largest Visual Novels I’ve ever played. So even if this one is shorter, it’s still longer than most other Visual Novels are, whether Adult or All Ages. The story may be considered a side event, but there are some fairly major things that happen in it. The canon ending they are continuing from the first game is the Harem Ending, which makes sense as a king. If anyone is going to get away with having a harem of wives, it’s a ruler.
The one fair criticism I could see of the story is that Lute himself does not really make much personal growth, he’s more superhuman than he even was in the first game. But they do also make enough hints to basically outright say the reason for his excessive power. And it certainly does set up the story to go some interesting places in the future. But when it comes to world building and political intrigue, this Visual Novel is at the top of its class. The story expands past the borders of the two nations that were involved in the first game and starts to involve other countries and this world’s equivalent of The Vatican. There are just enough fantasy elements thrown in to make things interesting, between magic and demons, but at a fundamental level this is very much like the late Middle Ages to early Renascence Era of Europe. From there, it doesn’t really focus on any historical figures or events, but it does place interesting people in that world to see what would happen.
All the major players from the original game make appearances in this one, particularly all the wives and concubines that Lute has gathered around him. While there are certainly sexual reasons for them to all be there, that is not their only purpose. His harem makes him an extremely powerful ruler, and his ability to forgive the transgressions from the first game have benefited the kingdom he rules. That is a nice touch in a genre that can often show a more cynical side to storytelling. While there is a lot of story and sex devoted to playing out the events in the aftermath of the previous game, there are also several new characters and regions now at play. The first major ones are trying to get revenge for the fall of their country in the previous story, Sir Argent and his magician Nellis. You can really take one good look at Nellis and have a good idea how it is going to play out, but to the writer’s credit, it has interesting twists before you finally get to the expected result.
Some of the more interesting and harsh commentary on this world (and ours) comes with the involvement of the Vatican. There is very little redeemable about that organization in this world, and they are mostly trying to take down Lute for daring to marry a demon. Given that Shamsiel is basically the mascot for this series, you can imagine that is not going to go well for them. In general, anyone who goes after the King’s women is in for a bad time. But in the process there are some pretty biting critiques of their organization that may not please some people who are fans of that real life organization. And I’ll leave it there without engaging in the dangling Catholic Priest joke. This arc of the story does however introduce some interesting new concepts about Lute himself and also builds on the mythology and monsters that populate this world.
If the story left off with just that first half, it might have been exactly what I expected from a side story. However, that is only the first half of the game. The second half involves the rising tensions with their neighboring country of Fronce (very obviously a stand in for France of that era). The Queen of the country is a very good ruler, but she has an issue with the counselors that she chooses. They think that they can manipulate her, and sometimes they are correct. But hiding behind that heaving bosom is a woman that is more than she appears. So in the process of challenging Lute’s leadership ability, Fronce ends up digging up their own dirty laundry. Like all of the women in this game, they may be ostensibly there to have a sex scene for the viewer’s pleasure, but they are not just air-headed sex dolls either. Aphrodia also has the benefit of knowing her own heritage, which will shed even more light on Lute’s mysterious past.
For the most part Funbag Fantasy: Sideboob Story gives a chance for women who had fewer scenes in the first game (such as Gladys and Emeralia) to get more character development and a lot more sex in. Along with the two new girls, Nellis and Aphrodia, that makes up the lion’s portion of the sex scenes in the game and the story development. The one exception is with Lute’s succubus wife, Shamsiel. She is once again a major focus which shows that the studio considers her to be the main heroine of the series. That’s understandable, even with a harem of exceptional ladies, it’s good to have a cover girl and a focus. But you can also tell with allusions to Lute’s hidden backstory, that she is likely to become very important for the future of the story as well.
That brings up my first criticism for this game. If you had a favorite from the first game that wasn’t Shamsiel, Gladys, or Emeralia then you might feel that they were a bit under-represented in this game. My series waifu is Isis, and she ended up with only one sex scene and only a few dialogue interactions. To be fair, she had a lot more to do in the first game, so it does balance out when taking the two games together. But if one of those girls who are less seen in this game is your primary reason for playing this, you may end up a little disappointed. The other criticism I have is that this game is extremely focused on one kink. That kink is extremely large breasts that are lactating. There is no variation in breast size, and there is actually not all that much penetration sex in this game when compared to all the Paizuri (Japanese word meaning breast play) and milk drinking that goes on. There are quite a few Eroge scenes, which definitely is a good thing, but when the variety is so low it can start to run together or even become tedious.
However, those are really two minor complaints. The artwork definitely helps alleviate any doldrums from similar sex scenes, it is quite amazing in both games. Additionally the writing is great for the political intrigue, world building, and the comedic cut away scenes that help break up the pace and keep the story light. I didn’t hear any songs that weren’t there in the first game, but the music is still good, so there were no complaints. Hopefully they do add some more variety in the full sequel, or that may be a complaint going forward. The voice acting is once again stellar and everyone is voiced in the game except Lute. Even the minor guard positions and male characters have some good voice work, so there was an obvious focus there. The Fronce people have some ridiculous accents in their voice work and in the English translation, but it works for the story they are telling. It wouldn’t have been easy to find a satisfactory way to represent that, but MangaGamer did their usual good job of providing a quality translation.
As a 1.5 entry into a series, this game did its job quite well. It expanded on the story and the world while getting me excited for the true sequel. Most importantly the main character, Lute, remained likable and with enough mystery in his past to still provide some surprises. His harem of women grows by the game, he now has a new wife and two more women that are dedicated to serving him. But if they continue to balance them well, that won’t be a problem. All of the characters have distinct looks and very distinct personalities, so keeping all the characters around is the best plan moving forward. The price of the game is $44.95, which seemed like a lot before I started. But that was when I thought this would just be a short side story. As I have said, that is decidedly not the case. And when it comes to artwork and voice acting of this quality, I’ll happily pay a premium price every time. This Sideboob Story did its job admirably, I am very excited for the next entry.
| Review Score | |
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| Overall |   |
Review Copy Was Provided By The Publisher
