Studio Élan (and former Studio Coattails) is a fusion of amazing writers and voice actors and other fantastic talents, producing unique quality works of magical worlds, endearing characters and wholesome romance, getting better and better with every iteration. Heart of the Woods immediately became one of my all-time favourite VNs, and I can safely say that Please Be Happy easily beats it. Can we also take a moment to appreciate that absoutely insane (at this time of writing, not counting this review) 99.3% positive reviews rating, quite possibly the highest I've ever seen on Steam and beating every other game in the all-time top charts!

In my opinion, great people have stood on each other's shoulders for a decade and refined storytelling & VN strengths to create increasingly better and more fluent, touching, wholesome titles with great characters and ambience, and this is just the beginning.

Mechanically a fairly simple VN engine with modern quality of life. Save slots sufficient for frequent use. It offers easy access to specific scenes for revisiting, full time travel logging for jumping backwards during scenes, runs as borderless fullscreen, shows OST titles as they play, customised voice settings for all characters and cute audio excerpts for menu buttons, unlockable extras for images/music and credits.

Furthermore, the menu is structured as navigating an open book complete with adequate bookmark text summaries for every new scene, completely fitting both the narrative and overall theme (though occasionally providing accidental spoilers if you happen to open the menu at the beginning of a scene).

Branching is mainly done through two major splits for the latter two chapters as well as a very minor subpath for each of these, governed by a very limited amount of choices throughout the entire game (about five in total). Other than that, there are three cute side stories to be unlocked parallel to the main plot, of which two are obtainable per playthrough. These are handled by a map system where you choose destinations during free time. However, this system feels disappointingly like an afterthought as it mostly makes it blindingly obvious where to go or contains weak filler, which is a shame considering its potential.

Please Be Happy is a heartwarming urban fairytale with casually interwoven fantasy elements, set in a modern society with a subpopulation of naturally integrated mythological, mostly human creatures, supplying a backstory to a fictional world closely resembling our own. I would love to see more stories taking place in this setting! This allows for various magic to aid the plot and for protagonists with more vivid backgrounds.

The characters are introduced in natural ways slowly uncovering their quirks, personality and flaws through a first person perspective, gradually progressing the story at a pace that manages to constantly add just a little more curiosity and warmth to the interactions to keep the reader going, elevating seemingly mundane conversations to meaningful levels of trying to decipher each character's actions and behaviour, throwing in vital drama and plot points at the right moments. The depth of the story from the onset shows that despite marketed as a yuri novel, it shines foremost as a wholesome slice-of-life "coming-of-age/new adult" (my research shows these terms are hotly contested) fantasy with romance sprinkled on top, with a lot of familial love in the mix as well.

Despite its mixed execution in terms of branching mechanics as mentioned earlier, it deserves great praise for its consistency across paths. Whereas most VNs resort to almost twisting reality based on player choices, decisions in Please Be Happy actually feel like they are only affecting what they should, and creating long-term consequences only through clear chains of causality. Though a bunch of minor cliffhangers are left unresolved, there are no apparent plot holes.

So how good is the story, then? It's so good that I'm getting moved multiple times in between subplots. It's so good that it makes me realize uncomfortably well how bad my own life is, yet provides a tiny message of positivity, care and hope. It's so good that I knew I would feel a hole in my heart when I inevitably finished it, delaying my final plays and taking breaks between scenes to make the experience last longer. It's quite good.

Super solid across the board. The use of predominantly bright colours adds to the overall theme of positivity, bringing the scenery to life both in the sprawling urban streets, the main interior buildings, and the hills, forests, parks and waterfront surrounding the city. The amount of backgrounds are largely unique.

The characters are beautifully drawn in high resolution with modern animation for natural speech, expressions, blinking and common poses. Every single character (with just one exception) is voiced and has multiple sprites to go with them.

Cutscene drawings mix up multiple different drawing styles by presumably a variety of different artists, which promotes diversity at the cost of some drawing consistency.

If story is the heart of the VN, then the audio is the soul. With beautifully composed OST by Sarah Mancuso synchronised with the plot beats and strong theme melodies for the protagonists, there's feeling in every step of the journey.

I really easily admire all of the talented voice actors in the industry, and this title just proves it further! Characters are powerfully brought to life; protagonists are provided with unique quirks in their manner of speech and accents, and even the occasional hiccups (intentional?) sound perfectly natural. Side characters all get plenty of love and having this completeness is just so important in bringing the whole world to life.

Finally, I must praise the main voice more - this is the first time I've encountered Dottovu and I'm already fanboying over here and tracking down more upcoming works. She not only adds to adorably tugging the heartstrings throughout the game, but plays an entire melody - namely, singing the icing on the cake, the ending theme, which you'll have the pleasure of hearing at least four times during playthroughs (unless you skip... but why would you?!) Like in classics such as the To The Moon series, I consider a powerful, reflective song an amazing finale to an already great story.

At first glance, Please Be Happy seems like your above average run-of-the-mill yuri romance novel, but don't be fooled! This is a potent all-time masterpiece with storytelling in focus, and I will without hesitation recommend it not just to people who enjoy yuri content, but to everyone that appreciates an amazing, wholesome, heartfelt fairytale, which also happens to have ladies falling in love and kissing (and nothing beyond that).

As previously mentioned, I believe this is only the beginning for great works to come for Studio Élan, and I will be stalwartly following them.

So get out there and immerse yourselves in the company of the lovely cast and the main character, who... is very pleasant... but for some reason, I'm having trouble recalling their name and appearance...
Oh well, another playthrough should probably fix that!!


Gameplay: N/A
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Media: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Studio Élan (and former Studio Coattails) is a fusion of amazing writers and voice actors and other fantastic talents, producing unique quality works of magical worlds, endearing characters and wholesome romance, getting better and better with every iteration. [i]Heart of the Woods[/i] immediately became one of my all-time favourite VNs, and I can safely say that [i]Please Be Happy[/i] easily beats it. Can we also take a moment to appreciate that absoutely insane (at this time of writing, not counting this review) [b]99.3% positive reviews rating[/b], quite possibly the highest I've ever seen on Steam and beating every other game in the all-time top charts! In my opinion, great people have stood on each other's shoulders for a decade and refined storytelling & VN strengths to create increasingly better and more fluent, touching, wholesome titles with great characters and ambience, and this is just the beginning. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Mechanically a fairly simple VN engine with modern quality of life. Save slots sufficient for frequent use. It offers easy access to specific scenes for revisiting, full time travel logging for jumping backwards during scenes, runs as borderless fullscreen, shows OST titles as they play, customised voice settings for all characters and cute audio excerpts for menu buttons, unlockable extras for images/music and credits. Furthermore, the menu is structured as navigating an open book complete with adequate bookmark text summaries for every new scene, completely fitting both the narrative and overall theme (though occasionally providing accidental spoilers if you happen to open the menu at the beginning of a scene). Branching is mainly done through two major splits for the latter two chapters as well as a very minor subpath for each of these, governed by a very limited amount of choices throughout the entire game (about five in total). Other than that, there are three cute side stories to be unlocked parallel to the main plot, of which two are obtainable per playthrough. These are handled by a map system where you choose destinations during free time. However, this system feels disappointingly like an afterthought as it mostly makes it blindingly obvious where to go or contains weak filler, which is a shame considering its potential. [h1]Story[/h1] [i]Please Be Happy[/i] is a heartwarming urban fairytale with casually interwoven fantasy elements, set in a modern society with a subpopulation of naturally integrated mythological, mostly human creatures, supplying a backstory to a fictional world closely resembling our own. I would love to see more stories taking place in this setting! This allows for various magic to aid the plot and for protagonists with more vivid backgrounds. The characters are introduced in natural ways slowly uncovering their quirks, personality and flaws through a first person perspective, gradually progressing the story at a pace that manages to constantly add just a little more curiosity and warmth to the interactions to keep the reader going, elevating seemingly mundane conversations to meaningful levels of trying to decipher each character's actions and behaviour, throwing in vital drama and plot points at the right moments. The depth of the story from the onset shows that despite marketed as a yuri novel, it shines foremost as a wholesome slice-of-life "coming-of-age/new adult" (my research shows these terms are hotly contested) fantasy with romance sprinkled on top, with a lot of familial love in the mix as well. Despite its mixed execution in terms of branching mechanics as mentioned earlier, it deserves great praise for its consistency across paths. Whereas most VNs resort to almost twisting reality based on player choices, decisions in [i]Please Be Happy[/i] actually feel like they are only affecting what they should, and creating long-term consequences only through clear chains of causality. Though a bunch of minor cliffhangers are left unresolved, there are no apparent plot holes. So how good is the story, then? It's so good that I'm getting moved multiple times in between subplots. It's so good that it makes me realize uncomfortably well how bad my own life is, yet provides a tiny message of positivity, care and hope. It's so good that I knew I would feel a hole in my heart when I inevitably finished it, delaying my final plays and taking breaks between scenes to make the experience last longer. It's quite good. [h1]Graphics[/h1] Super solid across the board. The use of predominantly bright colours adds to the overall theme of positivity, bringing the scenery to life both in the sprawling urban streets, the main interior buildings, and the hills, forests, parks and waterfront surrounding the city. The amount of backgrounds are largely unique. The characters are beautifully drawn in high resolution with modern animation for natural speech, expressions, blinking and common poses. Every single character (with just one exception) is voiced and has multiple sprites to go with them. Cutscene drawings mix up multiple different drawing styles by presumably a variety of different artists, which promotes diversity at the cost of some drawing consistency. [h1]Media[/h1] If story is the heart of the VN, then the audio is the soul. With beautifully composed OST by Sarah Mancuso synchronised with the plot beats and strong theme melodies for the protagonists, there's feeling in every step of the journey. I really easily admire all of the talented voice actors in the industry, and this title just proves it further! Characters are powerfully brought to life; protagonists are provided with unique quirks in their manner of speech and accents, and even the occasional hiccups (intentional?) sound perfectly natural. Side characters all get plenty of love and having this completeness is just so important in bringing the whole world to life. Finally, I must praise the main voice more - this is the first time I've encountered Dottovu and I'm already fanboying over here and tracking down more upcoming works. She not only adds to adorably tugging the heartstrings throughout the game, but plays an entire melody - namely, singing the icing on the cake, the ending theme, which you'll have the pleasure of hearing at least four times during playthroughs (unless you skip... but why would you?!) Like in classics such as the [i]To The Moon[/i] series, I consider a powerful, reflective song an amazing finale to an already great story. [h1]Overall[/h1] At first glance, [i]Please Be Happy[/i] seems like your above average run-of-the-mill yuri romance novel, but don't be fooled! This is a potent all-time masterpiece with storytelling in focus, and I will without hesitation recommend it not just to people who enjoy yuri content, but to [i]everyone[/i] that appreciates an amazing, wholesome, heartfelt fairytale, which [i]also[/i] happens to have ladies falling in love and kissing (and nothing beyond that). As previously mentioned, I believe this is only the beginning for great works to come for Studio Élan, and I will be stalwartly following them. So get out there and immerse yourselves in the company of the lovely cast and the main character, who... is very pleasant... but for some reason, I'm having trouble recalling their name and appearance... Oh well, another playthrough should probably fix that!! [table] [tr] [th]Pros[/th] [th]Cons[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Storytelling masterpiece[/td] [td]Slightly slow paced[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Amazing voice acting[/td] [td]Some branching and gameplay filler[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Deep characters and personal growth[/td] [td]Some inconsistent art and scenery[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Strong themes of positivity, caring, belonging, hope - wholesome![/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Great soundtrack and ending theme song[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Beautiful artwork and strong VN engine[/td] [td][/td] [/tr] [/table] Gameplay: N/A Story: 9/10 Graphics: 9/10 Media: 10/10 [u]Overall[/u]: 9/10