Fair points here all around.
My opinion on this matter, I find a lot of pleasure in ridiciulous scenes, in overexaggerating with new things in every progressive story. I would even go so far as saying that Slice of Venture could go even further, exploring even more different things. Like mentioned before, magic is an established story device plot, so using it would benefit the creativity of the told story.
Furthermore, I personally think that with every game, every scenario and every new bit, you just can't keep up the "new" things in one direction (for example: you can only go so far with watersports [scat could be explored more though
] ) so it's only natural, that you hit boundaries in your creative process. So when ideas like having sex with zebras or elephants come in mind, I always suggest letting the creative person explore those options and if it works out, keep them and develop them from there on further. Because its important to let a creator use every bit to extend those boundaries.
In conclusion, I agree with Paz here, the Japanese market is always trying to "one up" eachother, so its refreshing to see a western developer trying the same thing or even getting further (which is quite the mountain to climb).