2 questions that I really need help

I'm very new to rpg maker and need some advice. I have 2 questions that I really need help with.

1 - Is there any posible way at all to increase the amount of tiles I can use in the game?

2 - Is it possible to use prerendered backrounds like in ff7, such as drawing a landscape from a birds eye view, making the all the screens nothing but battles and walking from screen to screen. (thats just one idea, any others would help)

Any help at all would be greatly apreciated, thanx.