zero escape vlr is a visual novel, but instead of court cases you have room escape puzzles and a prisoner's dilemma sort of plot. A sequel is coming out soonish? 999 is the first, and people will insist you need to play it first, which can be done on a ds (or 3ds?) or Ios I think? I don't know, I played just the vita one and was perfectly fine.
persona 4 golden is a hybrid of a vn and a rpg
corpse party are horror vns i think.
um... there are other vita vns, i think, but i don't actually like the genre so am not the best resource.
Thanks for the input. I have Persona 4 that I played for 4 hours and stopped because I just didn't have time then, and I've been itching to start it again now. The length is a big sticking point though, maybe I'll finally do it after I finish Witcher 3.
VLR I heard the same thing, that you should play 999 first. That's a shame because that game is hard to find (and expensive).
The Corpse Party games sound interesting, I'll keep an eye on them. Are they independent of each other, story-wise?