Ashblade

Seven hunters. Eight demons. One ladder, and the whole thing is fought with two buttons. Pick a hunter, walk into the Ashen Order's ladder, and fight your way from a scrapper in a bamboo grove to Morak, the Ashen Warden. Every demon you beat unlocks the next, and every fight is a real fight - they block, they punish a whiff, and they grab you if you turtle. The heavies are readable. When a demon winds up, the screen tells you what is coming and gives you time to block it - about a second at the bottom of the ladder, half of one from the boss. That is the whole difficulty curve: how much room you get to see it coming. Your meter fills from hits landed, hits taken, and hits blocked, and it fills fast enough to matter. Tap for a quick special, hold to climb a tier, and when the demon is nearly dead and you have the bars, one press ends it - a full-screen anime finisher with its own shout. Story mode, chapter cutscenes, and per-hunter endings. Seven hunters to unlock, each with their own element, ultimate and finisher.