Switching save slots really does keep the story this time. The fix in 1.2.1 covered one of the two faults behind this and was reported still frozen on the build that carried it. Loading another slot and then speaking to anyone left the joystick and the ACT button gone and no dialogue on screen: the game knew perfectly well you were in a conversation — which is why the controls were hidden — but the words were never drawn. Leaving the book through the green door and coming back was the only way out of it, and nothing was ever wrong with the save.

Only conversations were affected this time, which is why it read as a freeze rather than as missing text. Chapter cards and arrival lines had been drawing correctly all along.