Golden Sun: The Lost Age is a sequel. Its predecessor was called, unsurprisingly, Golden Sun. When it came out a year and a half ago, it drew enthusiastic praise from many corners. "Gee whiz," went the chorus, "what a great traditional role-playing game! What a magnificent throwback to the glory days of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System! Ah, youth!"

Lost Age is a traditional role-playing game too. This makes it impervious to criticism. For if there is one constituency that doesn't know much about art but knows what it likes, it is the fans of traditional role-playing games. This is a constituency so conservative, so utterly opposed to change of any kind, that its hobby consists of playing slightly-tweaked new editions of the same game over and over and over, pausing only to bitch about how they don't do things the way they used to. It is a ferociously dull hobby, but its hold on the faithful is unshakeable.

Traditional role-playing games are set in vaguely-medieval fairylands. Most of them owe a big debt to Tolkein and his Middle-earth. People live in villages and listen to their elders and attend harvest festivals. The young and foolish among them occasionally set out on adventures. They learn to work magic and to bend the forces of nature to their will. They collect enchanted stones/runes/jewels/orbs. They do this to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. Because evil men are trying very hard to collect the full set of stones/runes/jewels/orbs, and if they ever manage the task, a great and dangerous power will be unleashed. A power that was sealed away generations ago by wise men who knew its terrible dangers. Etc.

Here in the world of Golden Sun the terrible power is called "Alchemy." No, not that alchemy. This one is a much fiercer and deadlier and more sweeping kind of wizardry than the one you are thinking of. Never mind that everyone who read that Harry Potter book or saw the movie will also be thinking of the same alchemy as you, and never mind that all those people will jeer or giggle when they encounter this little game and its astoundingly unsavvy worldview. Just remember this: Fans of traditional role-playing games are deeply unsavvy. Also, remember this: They do not care what you think.

So, Alchemy. Apparently it will be unleashed from the cave where it has been locked away once four great and ancient lighthouses are re-lit. In the original Golden Sun our heroes strove to prevent those re-lightings but unsuccessfully: right at the end, the "Venus" lighthouse came back into service. Then there was a big earthquake. This time out, the action picks up just in time for that same earthquake. Our new heroes remain eager to stop the spread of evil, but as time goes on they begin to wonder if cracking open a can of alchemy themselves is a smarter idea than just foiling all the lighthouse-lightings. This epiphany comes over the course of many hundreds of dull, dull, screamingly dull conversations. All the characters talk to each other all the time. They almost never have anything interesting to say. There is no way to fast-forward through the countless pages of text that constitute these conversations. You will be bored, unless you are soaking up the story eagerly. Which you will not be, unless you are one of the converted.

The fight scenes are nice to look at. Not for the knifeplay, which is standard and pedestrian, but for the magic, which is glowy and sparkly, and which here is called not sorcery but "Psynergy."

Apparently none of the creators have read Dilbert either.