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 And it is a simple game. Enemies all follow the same attack pattern: those with melee weapons crowd in for the kill, while the guys with projectiles keep their distance (which does make sense). It rectifies one problem (of many) in last year's Seven Samurai 20XX, which share the same genre and theme: there's a balance of enemies in Western, whereas 20XX had all the enemies come to the player, dulling the hard work I think it takes to become that samurai stud. The stages are very small, very arena-ish, and most are shamelessly reused throughout (they always fit the plot of the chapter, of course, but come on). The enemies who come in seemingly random waves, magically appearing out of the desert dust for ambush, but because the levels are enclosed, level progression doesn't occur in the sense that you start at A and must get to B, but is instead structured around these foes and how effectively you can chain their deaths. Samurai Western's chaining system is dynamic and flexible - especially in comparison to the rigidness of the meticulous Shinobi, or even Ninja Gaiden - but the game is simple enough to never totally overloads on enemies so as disengage and bore the player.
And it's exactly this simplicity, it's insistence to not tax the player that makes Samurai Western easy to put down, and vice versa: just as easy to continue to its end, to say "only one more level." From the first stage, you'll know the arc of the game: select a stage, equip weapons and distribute experience points, watch an opening cinematic, fight until a boss shows up, watch a closing cinematic, read the stage results and collect the rewards, and then go back to the stage select. Most of the time this kind of meager game theory doesn't work in execution, but for one that is so economic and perfunctory, enough can be enough.
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