Yes this is outside the scope of “Adventure” and “Point-and-Click” games, not really sure if the Narrative genre would be something different from visual novel.
I played two games by NeiLei on itch.io that were a little over an hour long each. Funny and the art was nice. Most of the games were watching the dialog, there was very limited player input but it was there.
Any suggestions for similar games that are 99% story, with different endings?
No multiple endings, but you might enjoy The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s an official Sega product and free on Steam. Pretty entertaining, good art and can be finished in a couple hours. It’s a simplified Ace Attorney style game, using inventory items and clues to interrogate the characters and solve the mystery.
Sounds cool; I did play the Ace Attorney series a while back, that’s totally in the genre I’m thinking about!