Except there are multiple levels of foreground and a chipset can be of unlimited length. The only thing I don't like about RPG XP is the lack of autotiles compared to 2K/2k3. Oh, and the combat engine, but since it's all done with Ruby, that can be rescripted.
XP also (through scripting or in box) supports:
Real-time battle (more solidly than the previous counterparts)
pixelated movement
online play (I know someone was working on an XP MMO, but I don't know what happened with that)
better support for multi party systems
better support for multi-disc gaming
better audio support