First of all thank you for trying so hard to play the game, and my sincerest apologies that it's still not working. What name are you entering when you start the game? When you play the minigame are you ending with more or less than 10 unhappy guests? Those are pretty much the only variables that the player has the ability to impact this early on in the story.
My in-game name was Nandeyo. I experienced the same issue both with Auto Progression enabled and disabled. I usually had the dialogue speed set to Fast. I would generally finish with more than 30 gold and around 2–3 unhappy customers. I played with the Master Volume turned down.
I’m not very knowledgeable about these things, and I obviously don’t know more about the game than you do, but after doing a little research, I’m wondering if the issue could be related to the game failing to load certain files/assets at that specific point. I couldn’t find any other issue that seemed to explain why this is happening on my end.
Thank you again for taking the time to look into this.
Thank you so much! I just tried your suggestion, and it actually worked!
If it worked for me, I hope other people experiencing the same issue can solve it this way too.
I really appreciate how helpful and responsive you've been throughout this whole process. Thank you again for taking the time to help me and staying in touch.
I also heard that you're going to have a child soon, so I wish both you and your baby good health and all the best!
If I ever come across another issue, I'd be more than happy to help you troubleshoot it if I can.
Take care of yourself, and thank you again for everything!