I knew it was a lost cause the moment Yasunori Mitsuda "moved on." *sigh*

Hope is not all lost, I'm sure. If EPIII manages to do well, they'll likely do a spinoff series to make up for the other three games. They've been trying their darnedest to make Xenosaga a huge franchise, so I doubt we've seen the last of it. However, I agree with darkchrono: it should have been a book.