I liked FF13. I don't think adding in God of War stuff would have made it better. It just would make it out of place for the franchise. JRPG's and WRPG's have different demographic audiences. The God of War directs it's attention toward the Hardcore male audience while the FF series goes after the regular male and female gamers.
In fact, a third of FF13's Fandom is female! They love the interaction of the characters! When everything settled FF13 was owned by 6.2 million people (after returns and such were made) that means at least 2,033,334 copies belong to a female.
God of War had the "hope" bit because that is part of the mythology of "Pandora's Box". After the evils were released in the original myth, what was left at the bottom of the box was hope. The writers were being extremely accurate about Pandora's Box and the mythos around it.