Looking for some advice.. (My players, stay out)

[Mattarias, King.]

(That means you, Hootman. :P)

Hey Playground, I'm about to start a D&D 4th edition game based on the Tales Of series of games (Only played Symphonia/dotnw, Legendia, and working through The Abyss, so no spoilers please), and I was wondering if any other fans of the series could give me some advice?

I know that I want to keep a lot of staples- for example, refluffing potions as Gels (restores health via x healing surges based off type- apple, pineapple, etc), having the Summon Spirits be an important thing later on in the game, and having the characters stick to one type of weapon (they're okay with this).

But I feel like I'm missing something that really MAKES a Tales game, y'know? Any ideas?

Thank you kindly for at least taking the time to read this. :)

[SixWingedAsura]

First off, you need a twist. A big one. Make your players think that they're reaching the end of the campaign (maybe a bit early, more genre-savvy players will catch on that this isn't the end) and then pull a massive 180 that puts the world, the party or others in danger.

Second, you need some sort of...mana...thingy. Whether it's Aer, Phonons or er...mana, make up something that makes magic tic. Then put it in danger. Or make IT the danger. Or make it somewhat responsible for the danger, but not really and people need it to live comfortably and...you know what I'm getting at.

Third, Summon Spirits. My advice? Try splitting magic users into varying elements based on a pact with one of the four(five, six, seven or however many elements you wanna throw in there.)

Forth, make really annoying overpowered bonus bosses. If your party can break them, they get really cool **** that lets them break the game...of course if they can beat these bosses, they never needed them to begin with.

I hoped that helped(?)

[Mattarias, King.]

PERFECT! Thank you! Exactly the type of advice I needed!

Now I just wish I chose a system that actually used mana points.. Hm..