The Awakener: Battle Tendency — Characters, Co-op, and the PS5 Version That Hasn’t Landed

First, the disambiguation, because the name does this game no favours. Battle Tendency is also the second arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and search engines cheerfully conflate the two. The Awakener: Battle Tendency is a video game — a third-person action RPG from the small independent studio TANER GAMES — and it has nothing to do with Joseph Joestar or Hamon.

It released on Steam on May 5, 2026, costs $4.99 at full price, and sits at Mostly Positive — 73% of 237 user reviews.

Here are the things people actually ask about it, answered directly.

The Awakener: Battle Tendency characters

The game is built around multiple playable Awakeners, not a single protagonist. Each one has its own weapon, its own skill set and a genuinely different combat style — they are not reskins sharing a moveset.

How the roster works in practice:

• You start with a limited selection and unlock the rest by progressing the campaign. Characters are gated behind story progress rather than purchased.
• The free demo includes two playable characters, which is the cheapest way to find out whether the combat suits you before spending anything.
• Each has distinct weapons and skills, so switching character meaningfully changes how you approach crowds and bosses rather than just changing the model.

One honest caveat, since this is the question people most often search and most often find unanswered: TANER GAMES does not publish a named roster. There is no official character list on the Steam page, no wiki worth the name, and the community references characters by role — "the warrior", "the general" — rather than by canonical names. If you find a page confidently listing named characters with unlock levels, treat it with suspicion; that information is not something the developer has released.

What you can rely on is the structure: several Awakeners, unlocked through play, each a real change in how the game feels.

What the gameplay actually is

The developer's own pitch is the clearest description anyone has managed: "Diablo-style build depth with Dynasty Warriors crowd-clearing."

That means two things stacked on top of each other:

The combat is musou, not soulslike. You are clearing large numbers of weak enemies with wide attacks, then fighting bosses that require actual attention. It expects you to dodge, reposition, counterattack and spend abilities — it is active rather than a stand-and-mash loop — but if you come to it expecting a precise, stamina-governed duel system you will be disappointed. That is not what it is doing.

The loot system is the actual product. Equipment drops with randomised affixes and rarity tiers, and the talent tree layers on top. The hook is not the story or the combat animation quality — it is assembling a build out of what dropped, discovering a combination that trivialises a fight, and then chasing the next one. The developer quotes 20–50 hours, which is plausible if the affix chase lands for you and wildly optimistic if it doesn't.

This is the part that makes a $5 game worth writing about at all. Build-driven loot games are expensive to design and usually priced accordingly. Getting a functioning one for the price of a coffee is unusual.

Is The Awakener: Battle Tendency on PS5?

Not yet — but it is coming.

The precise situation, because this one generates a lot of confused searching:

• A PS5 version is officially announced. There is a PlayStation Store page for it, listing PS5 only and mentioning DualSense controller features.
• It is not released and not purchasable. The page is a "coming soon" listing with release date to be determined, offering a wishlist button and no pre-order.
• There is no PS4 version listed, and no Xbox or Switch version announced at all.

So if you are on console, the answer today is that you can wishlist it and wait. The only way to play right now is on PC.

Platforms, release date and price

• Released: 5 May 2026
• Platform: Windows 10 64-bit, via Steam. PC only at present.
• Price: $4.99, discounted frequently — it is regularly available for around $3.49, and patient shoppers rarely need to pay full price.
• Announced: PS5, date to be confirmed.

Can you play co-op?

Yes, with a real limitation worth knowing before you buy it as something to play with someone.

It supports local two-player split-screen co-op, and that requires at least one controller — two people cannot share a keyboard. There is no online multiplayer, though Remote Play Together is enabled, which is the practical workaround for playing with someone who isn't in the room.

How to read the review score

"Mostly Positive, 73%" on a $4.99 game needs translating, because the number means something different at this price than it would at $60.

A 73% rating on a budget indie title typically splits into two camps rather than describing one mediocre experience. The positive reviews are from people who came for the loot chase and got exactly that. The negative ones cluster around production values — presentation, polish, story delivery, voice work — the things a tiny studio cannot buy.

Almost nobody is arguing the build system doesn't work. The complaints are about everything around it.

Which makes the buying decision unusually clean: if affix-driven loot is the thing you enjoy, the score is understating the game for you. If you need a game to look and sound expensive, the score is generous.

PC requirements

Modest, as you would expect:

• Minimum: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 / RX 580
• Recommended: Intel Core i7-8700 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT, 32GB RAM, RTX 2060 / RX 5700XT

The 16GB minimum is the notable figure — higher than most games this size ask for, and worth checking against whether 16GB of system RAM is still enough in 2026 if you are near that line.

Quick answers

• Characters? Multiple playable Awakeners with distinct weapons and skills, unlocked through campaign progress. Two are in the demo. The developer publishes no named roster.
• On PS5? Announced, release date to be determined, wishlist only. PC is the only way to play now.
• Release date? 5 May 2026 on Steam.
• Price? $4.99, frequently discounted to around $3.49.
• Co-op? Local split-screen for two, needs a controller. No online; Remote Play Together works.
• How long? Developer says 20–50 hours, driven almost entirely by how much the loot chase grips you.
• Is it worth it? If you like affix-driven builds, comfortably. If you want polish, no.

If small-studio games are your thing, our look at The Relic: First Guardian — twelve people, six years covers another action RPG punching above its budget.