Hello, i am having exactly the same problem as skatche, so i also thought about suggesting an auto save function to prevent data loss from this kind of error, having to start a new game because of this is really awful
In my case the game froze and stopped answering, so i had to kill the process. It happened twice, the first was after i accepted a quest from an villager to escort him to cathedral, but while i was moving, i was attacked by bandids, they asked me for some item and i refused, after that the game froze immediatly. The second was while i was in the first dungeon, i attacked a monster and the game froze. In both times, the bgm was still on, but the game frozen.
Not sure if it matter, but i was on Windows 7 using 32 bit version, also the character was Deserter