Thanks for your comment, a lot of work went into making the art so that makes me very happy!
Thanks to your comment I realized that one of my sprites had gotten flipped somewhere along the way. The < > you're referring to are the so-called Feints (and the flipped asset is supposed to show inverted colors). During the Feints, you're not supposed to press at all, so if you pressed some button during these then I can see why it might feel like you weren't precise enough.
I have fixed the sprite, but please have another go at the game and check the tutorial on the main menu to confirm that the < > was the Feint and not some other bug or issue!