Please Be Happy

It's been quite a few months since I played through this and I can safely say it's had a lasting impact on me, I cannot recommend this VN enough. Even if Yuri or even romance in general isn't your thing, I REALLY recommend giving this a shot, it's a wonderful, genuinely heartfelt story about pursuing your own happiness, no matter where life takes you. If the story itself weren't enough, the voice work REALLY drives it home. A certain scene in particular had some of the most impressive VO I think I've heard in a long time, and had me reading through my tears. This has easily become one of my favorite stories, and I think of it fondly very often. On days when things get tough or difficult, stories like this live up to their namesake and remind you, to Please Be Happy.

Please be Happy is a beautiful game that fails to fully commit to its themes in favor of having fluff that feels really good, but doesn't do enough build up to make the big moments as good as they should be.
I played the game and bought the artbook separately once I finished it and I can confidenly recommend the game, but there's far too many things that make the experience feel somewhat incomplete.
First of all, the positives:
Please be Happy's voice acting is incredibly good. There's only one character that I can't stand (Mr Kim) and other than that maybe one or two extras that the game voices but that show up once in one dialogue and then they are gone. The sad moments in which characters tear up and speak choke you up thanks to the insane amount of effort is put into it and I can't praise it enough. Definitely made a lot of the experience feel better than what I would have originally thought, it's good enough to make me listen to every single line even if it made me take over twice the amount I would have had I only read the text.
The art style is simply beautiful. The backgrounds are full of color and really give a sense of comfiness when looking at them, specially the night versions of most environments. The sprites are insanely good, the girls look amazing and their character designs really stand out, but I do wish there were more outfit variations. There's only two per character, with small exceptions such as miho when she takes her jacket off, even if it doesn't really count.
The CGs are very cute and memorable, although some scenes feel like they could really use a CG but don't get it.
The music is really, really effective. Songs like Keeper of Memoirs make you smile whenever you hear them, Sketchbook, Sunlit Story and Myth on the Prowl are iconic, they feel perfectly fit for the game and its themes, while Rain Poem, A Quiet Moment, and Missing Pages (Especially Missing Pages, my favorite song in the OST) literally make some of the moments as special as they are. Go listen to the soundtrack, it's absolutely stellar.
Finally, the main menu, UI and functions like rolling back to a dialogue, hearing the voice line again and other stuff are really nice. Achievements, extra menus, scenes being named and given a small description of what happens in them, everything is above and beyond other visual novels.
The main issue with Please be Happy is its story.
Please be happy is a visual novel that sets up many storylines and beginnings of conflicts. Miho's magic (people forgetting about her after a day), for example, is a criminally underused piece of conflict that gets solved immediately after you get into one of the character's route's at least partially, with the only real use of this source of conflict happening in the beginning of Aspen's route and Juliet's (The beginning of Juliet's actually being very confusing if you've played Aspen's as to why Miho makes the decisions that she makes), which makes it feel like it has WAY too much potential to make angsty moments and drama happen, but it's simply not explored enough and it becomes a thing that is solved by actions off screen.
Having read the artbook (which includes developer notes and thoughts of the team), one particularly stands out to me, were the developers share how important they think communication is to relationships and that they wanted to reflect that in game. In game, most conflicts that have to do with Miho's lack of knowledge (and a potential jealousy side story for Aspen that is mentioned), get completely snuffed out mere instants after potentially happening, with Miho's communication skills and maturity being prioritized as a way to conceive that positive message.
Had the studio had someone like Juliet be their protagonist, someone with great experience and years of living and dealing with people be their protagonist, this would have been excusable, even if it meant that conflicts were still completely glossed over. But someone like Miho who's learning how to become a human (which is the objective mentioned in the synopsis for the game!) I think plotpoints like having to learn how to say what she feels, dealing with unknown feelings and even more could have made for more effective and engaging messaging. As it stands, Miho perfectly knowing what to do and say feels unnatural. Conflicts are set up and dealt with instantly, which means that for most of the game we have the romance, fluff and sweet feeling of seeing people falling in love and learning about life, but without any real payoff thanks to a lack of proper build-up and drama.
Confessions feel impactful and make you tear up a little bit, until you realize that you really havem't spent nearly enough time with the characters or have had more dialogue. Which is confusing, because the game has the time to spare. That's one of the biggest problems. It feels like things are being rushed, but with a game that is all about the cozy feelings, the moving from a fast lifestyle to a slow, settling down rhythm?
There's many things that could be removed, with real drama that could have been impactful, but the game chooses against it to have a laser focus on showing mature decisions with a character that knows nothing about human life or the complexity that goes into meeting and caring for others. I understand the angle of the game, trying to just be a feel good story that makes you smile, but it has so many elements that are under utilized and has so many conflicts that it willingly introduces, only to skip them almost entirely.
You meet characters and start to finally learn about them, but suddenly there's a big confession and the talking process becomes replaced by romantic stuff that feels nice to read, but leaves you wishing for more.
There's a couple of time skips that are somewhat frustrating, since the game is about taking your time and living the slow life, why not spend that time talking and having these interactions that we love take center stage?
A minor thing, but the map that they have in which you can visit any location you want feels somewhat pointless. It serves as a way to choose what side story you want, but most of the times it will simply be empty, you'll go to a location and there will be a bit of narration that is nice, but ultimately is irrelevant to the story. This will sometimes happen at seemingly random moments, moments in which I would much rather interact with the characters that the game showed me.
(Slight spoiler here) Worst of all, sometimes it actively chooses to go against the resolutions of characters such as Aspen not needing professional reassurance to realize her dream and choosing not to publish being completely ignored in her "Wild" ending. Alternative endings are not bad to have, they are very good! But the conflicts in the story happen the absolute same in this route, so the lesson becomes non existent and contradicted in the end.
There's definitely more things I could mention, both positive and negative, but it would include spoilers for the game and its story.
Ultimately, Please be Happy is a game full of love. The dialogues are amazing, and make you want to see more of the characters, the voice acting is some of the best I've heard and the art stands out a lot. But the story has so much potential that it willingly ignores in favor of fluff. Which is confusing, since the story has no real time factor to pressure it into anything.
I'd still recommend the game without a doubt. The powerful moments nearly made me cry and the characters are so memorable that I can only wish I had more of them and their beautiful personalities. I enjoyed it, and would play again, but can't really ignore the unrealized potential that it has, and I can definitely see why people love and call this game a masterpiece, even if for me it didn't quite achieve all of that.

Yes......I would be the last person you would expect to play a game like this. But in all honesty i love a good story with different paths and well designed characters. I also love Romance Stories and anime.

This game is great. I have never really played a visual novel before but its been really interesting.
I will definitely play more games in the future.

At the time of this review,
Ive only played through one path, But once i play more of the game ill change my review.

I love the characters so much that I just can't give this a bad review
but it doesn't feel like I'm playing a game, more like reading a book
there's barely any choice at all
like, in 7.5hours I've had a grand total of 5 choices

Please be happy was such a cute yuri VN. I really loved Juliet and Miho. I also found the world to be such an interesting place having modern day things but also being a tad mystical and magical. I found the presentation of this VN to be especially fun and unique <3

This yuri visual novel is a masterpiece.

It looks and sounds amazing, but the story telling and character development is just as impressive. It takes place in a fascinating urban fantasy world that you're going to want to see more of, and the character arcs for the MC and the two love interests are masterfully crafted. Even the three side stories are really good!

Basically everything about this visual novel is beautiful: the characters, the backgrounds, the voice acting, the music...
It started a bit slow for my tastes, but good lord chapter 3 hit hard
Also, I liked Juliet more but I thought Aspen's route was better
God I love Miho (and Eunbi)