The gameplay of PotR2 is almost entirely based on reaction speed. You need to grab your opponent before they grab you, and then you need to win the grab counter check. That grab counter system looks like rock-paper-scissors at first, but since you can see what your opponent picks, it's actually a reaction check to pick after your opponent but before the timer runs out.
A game that's mostly about reaction speed is annoying enough to play against a human, but against a CPU opponent it's downright infuriating. Either you set the difficulty low enough that you can beat the CPU 95% of the time, or if you set the difficulty above your reaction speed then the CPU just wins every grab interaction. The fact that it's optimal (and necessary on medium-high difficulties) to delay your input as long as possible also leads to an annoyingly long pause every time someone does a grab.
Strikes have a bit of non-reaction gameplay because you can try to control spacing, interrupt attacks and stop on different parts of the attack chain. Unfortunately, strikes only build up damage, which is only part of what you need to win. Even worse, during a grab you can perform unblockable attacks that are completely impossible to avoid, making strikes even worse in comparison. This grab attack mechanic isn't only bad because it makes strikes even less relevant, it's also silly to have a "mechanic" where you just press a button for free damage; there's no reason to not do as many grab attacks as possible.
Maybe you think strikes might be useful to knock down your opponent before going for a grab, but that's a trap; if you try to grab a knocked down opponent and they counter you, you get knocked down, allowing the CPU to get a free grab. This doesn't happen if the opponent is standing, so grabbing a knocked down opponent is (counter-intuitively) riskier than grabbing an opponent while they're still standing.
A lot of these criticisms also apply to the first game, but since there was no reaction speed grab minigame, it was easier to win with good spacing, blocks and strikes. The lack of a grab minigame also meant that even if you were trying to grab a standing CPU opponent, you only had to beat the CPU's reaction speed once to land a grab, rather than twice in a row. You could also predict the CPU's forward movement to grab the CPU while it wasn't able to grab you, whereas in PotR2 if you tried to do that, you would land the grab but almost inevitably get countered (on higher difficulties).
Eventually I just gave up playing on higher difficulties. I just play it on normal or easy to look at the animations while beating up opponents, and for that it's okay. It's a bit disappointing to see so much work being put into these animations, but have them in a game that doesn't seem well designed.
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