Actually during the leon campaign I gave them a reason to make his story of more relevance to the plot (via letter and email)
In short, it turns out that the war Roland dies in is actually because of an army funded by Donovan to open up a secret DOATEC branch in the desert, leon finds out about this due to a Bayman conversation at some point and bam.. he flips out with more rage, and instant story plot.
That can be modified in a hundred ways, but its so easy to plot him into a DOA6 story.
As for Tengu, I did the same, telling them what if he didnt actually die but was banished back into his relm by some ninja magic, and donovan with thirst for different methods of power resummons him.. but this time he is released and uncontrollable and reeking havoc everywhere.
Ein, simply that epsilon actually worked by the end of 5 and that all this time it was actually the prototype clone project. When hayate was freed before completion only the Ein data was extracted.
As for Raidou, ashamed of his defeat in DOA1, he spent years in the forest mastering his skill and is now back for revenge not only on the mugen tenshin, but on all the ninjas.
Genra, could stay dead in a fire. Serves the plot better with a traumatised ayane. His playstyle never fit anyway.
Those where the plots I suggested .. what do u think