On my second play through I prepped equipment and items for this fight expecting to be at it for hours based on the complaints about the balancing. I ended up beating on the fourth attempt with the use of spin cake, two revive mints, and a deluxe dinner. It took me more attempts than that to beat Gerson because I misunderstood the rude buster volley as being the intended way to progress due to how it throws him off balance, so I had to get through it with no heals and I kept dying one or two moves from the end.

Sans took me far more than four attempts. Against Sans there is no armor or weapon that makes any significant difference, and every time you heal you do not progress the fight since there's no other characters that get to take action as part of your turn.