Giving the game an honest try, I can't tell if my memory is failing me or not, but I don't recall the obscene amount of chain grabs being present in the first iteration.
So far, my experience with Skilled AI has been: Getting staggered by a parry even though my parries don't stagger -> AI juggles me a bit then grabs me cause I can't dash out in time -> Juggles me again after the grapple cause I still can't move for whatever reason -> Grab again -> 0 HP knockdown so I get grabbed again -> Have about 30% HP left within a minute of the fight starting.
Now, I played the first game, but I never felt like it had a 'recipe' like this where it's basically Tekken on steroids and with none of the responsive controls.