Shoot. Run. Drive. Kill. Farm. Fish. Just a handful of diverse things you get to do in a video game.

Playing these type of games can trigger the release of endorphins and dopamine, in an excited frenzy, as well as a sense of calm in a cosy environment. What they don’t tend to do is make you think, which is exactly what And Roger aims for you to do.

First off, it isn’t a game as such - although uses some of its mechanics, but defines itself as a visual novel.

You can interact with it with either a controller, or use the mouse abilities of the Switch 2 Joy-Cons.

You follow the story of Sofia, from a girl to a young woman, as she struggles with her mental health throughout her life. These struggles often present themselves as interactive tasks, that can be more difficult than they look. They can be frustrating, deliberately so, as they try to emulate the mental state of Sophie at that time. There may be a point when this empathy just clicks, or it just may pass you by completely, leaving you, well, frustrated. If that’s the case, this experience may not be for you. Which begs the question: who is it for?

In truth, it feels more like a medical aid than an accessible visual novel. And although it can be completed in around an hour, you may find yourself get seriously stuck, as there are no instructions, and no help if you do hit a wall. You may find yourself blindly moving the cursor around the screen, in the hope of doing something, and that’s kind of the point. There are no points, no high scores, no rewards, other than making it to the end, which you should do with a little patience and an open mind.

We did get frustrated at one point – and not in a good way, if there is such a thing, during a scene with a washing machine, where we came close to the hair pulling stage. But we persevered and did get through it, and can honestly say we didn’t feel any more empathetic towards Sofia’s situation, which made us feel it was just frustrating for the sake of being frustrating, and what’s the point of that?

Sofia’s story is a fascinating one to explore; her mental health is poor, and just medial tasks can be taxing. It’s clear that she has some kind mental issue, but it never reveals it in the game – apparently she is suffering from dementia, but there’s no such statement in the game, which is a shame, as at some point the ‘reader’ should be given reasons as to her behaviour, as a way of understanding them.

Perhaps some of this vagueness – of which there is a lot of - is lost in translation, as a game developed in Japan, but some serious thought should have been given to this, as the ‘game’ makes less sense without a reason.

That said, nothing should be taken away from the simple mechanics, and the overall style of the experience, which is clean and effective.

But this brings us back to our question – who is it for? As an experience to general members of the public, it’s lacking; there’s a narrative there, although not complete, with lots of button pressing and moving a cursor around to complete, with an end result that can be quite depressing.

It may be more productive as a learning tool however, for individuals who may have family members suffering from such conditions that may help in the understanding of them.

They say that if you want to understand someone, walk in their shoes. Well, you do exactly that here, in places, and if it manages to shed some light on mental health issues, it’s a worthy walk.