Nice!

Yeah the dash strike took a bit for me to get used to, although I've found it to be one of the key attacks, you can dash-strike and usually get out of the hotbox of most attacks between enemy attacks. I really only use normal attacks when I know where the enemy will land and when I have time to get in a few hits... Hornet just doesn't like straight lines much

I'm not sure how I feel about the quests...I think I agree, it's less immersive, but at the same time there's a lot more characters to keep track of. I also do like that you have to go out hunting for parts, it annoyed me at first, but it's a good way to retread areas and look for secrets

As far as beads... In the early game they're rare, and if you don't recover your cocoon it can really set you back, but as you progress they start to become fairly plentiful. I've started turning them into rosaries, it feels expensive, but it really is the intended strategy

But yeah, I'm enjoying the hell out of it too. I'm at 25% of the achievements and in act 2, I don't know how far this game goes, but it seems like there's a ways to go