Hello!

The original BG came out December 21st, 1998, and its sequel came out September 21, 2000. They are pretty old in terms of video game time. But there are a couple of things that I believe aged gracefully.

1) No grinding: Grinding in games is only a little younger than the industry itself. Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, the first few generations of Pokemon. Even some newer games have a type of grinding. Not necessary in BG1+2. You can grind if you want by just resting outdoors and waiting for monsters to come. But that would actually hinder you, since doing quests and exploring is a more efficient way of earning XP.

2) No mana system: I don't hate using mana as a resource in games. I just think it's refreshing to see something different. Some games try to mix it up a little by calling it something else; like rage, energy, or power points - but I believe this change is superficial. It's pretty much the same thing as mana. It just has a different name.

What are some elements of either game that you think stood the test of time?

1. The only western CRPG I can think of that requires grinding is Bard's Tale 1.
Usually people grind (as in fighting the same battles again and again for cheap XP) because they are scared that things may be too challenging at their party's current level.

2. Agree with this. Many dislike Vancian magic intensely, but I like variation in magic systems.

Generally I think BG 2 has stood the test of time very well. BG 1 suffers from very small screen resolution. At least it looks quite bad on a more modern and larger monitor than the old 14-15 inch ones.

I have found that segregating magical resources by spell level (as seen in these games, as well as in Wizardry 1-5 and Final Fantasy 1 and 3) doesn't make sense; see the other topic I made about this.

Personally, I think a better way to segregate resources is by type or element of spell, like in Wizardry 6-8 or Phantom Brave. (One thing I dislike about Wizardry 6-8's division, however, is that all the HP restoring spells are the same element; that's not the case in Phantom Brave.)

It's worth noting that Vancian magic is orthogonal to how magic resources are segregated; I can see a system where you're given a certain amount of MP to memorize spells, but you still have to memorize them in advance. Terranigma's magic system actually works like this (one detail that many people don't know; when you cast a spell, you get the gems back, so you can use them to purchase other spells, or repurchase the one you just cast).

Incidentally, one magic system that I happen to like that doesn't feel like MP is the one seen in Fire Emblem and SaGa 1 and 2 (and, in modified form, 3DS); every weapon (or, in SaGa, monster attack) has a finite amount of uses before it breaks, and spellbooks, which are used to cast spells, are no different. This has the rather interesting consequence that physical attacks lose their usual advantage of costing nothing, making the idea of conserving resources more interesting, because you can't dodge that need by using physical attacks.

I could also mention the magic system in Secret of Evermore, where you need alchemy ingredients to cast spells, but that is the only requirement to do so.