You seem to think I at some point praised Leon's story beyond the point that it's marginally better than much of the putrid shit that populates the genre, which I didn't do. My point is that all of their stories are "bland, boring and forgettable," including Leon. Thus, it's a terrible idea to dictate your roster based on such criteria, which is allegedly what TN is claiming their strategy was for DOA6. For the record, Brad Wong is returning, a character you claim is just filler. So why bring him back and not Leon? "Story" seems like a pretty damn weak justification.
"Win the tournament" is not a character. You can make Leon's goal (or literally anyone else's) "to win the tournament" if you want and it would make just as much sense with his character as it does for Hitomi, both whom have already had closure in their respective character arcs to prove themselves.
Cherry-picking Hayabusa, a character popular because of a different game series altogether, is not really evidence that male characters are largely as popular among DOA's audience as female characters. Though even if it did, that doesn't really change anything about the Leon situation.
The "sorry to break it to you" thing only works if you actually introduce new information that the other party wasn't already aware of. Let me be perfectly clear: even discounting any opinions on the rest of his character, Leon's gameplay alone is more than enough to justify his inclusion.
