This is huge!
You actually have the tiles to create one good looking environment now. It's probably the biggest upgrade to the engine since the new combat system.
The upgraded XP scroll functionality and the fix to the "!" problem are nice too.
If you have a "to do list", please add fixing the speech bubble and the wooden sign movement to it. Right now they behave like a npc's, turning left and right with player movement, which in my opinion just looks like a bug. Both should be static. I always edit them manually to be symmetric, otherwise "text lines" on them change sides.
You might also want to explore the possibility of adding a 2 frame movement animation to the characters(mc and npc's) too. While it's certainly not a must, it generally brings a lot of life to a game visually. I have no idea how it would impact performance though.
All in all a great update(and upgrade) to the engine!