[Spira]

hmm.. I never actually did have Minerva ever cast Ultima on me... but dying isn't an issue with Raise status. You can steal 99 Phoenix Downs from her. To get Full Cure materia you'll need to steal (im guessing rare) from the boss of the mission just before Minerva.

For me, I never did bother to boost any of my stats until reaching Minerva. It would have been way easier, but I was already killing things without much trouble using Costly Punch. The only stat I had maxed out was HP+999% on 2 materia (Curaga and Costly Punch). to make sure I had 99999HP from very early on.

I fused SPR and VIT +100 only for the Minerva Fight, then equipped Zeidrich to get it to 255 (i was around Lv70 when I fought her). Genji Helm was there to make Full Cure (and rolling) essentially free, tho Soul of Thamasa (i think, the 0mp one) would definitely have been sufficient. The last 2 slots were for Brutal and Adaman Bangle..

The rewards from the final missions were ok. I mean.. you already knew you have to be like a god to be able to win those battles.. and that theres really nothing more powerful than Minerva.. so what it really is, is a token reward to show that you've beaten the most powerful boss in the game.. think of it as something like Proof of Omega in FFVIII or Wyrmhero Blade in XII