like I said in my comment, this was for a brand new game I had just created with this update, not a previously existing game. I always create a new game with every update starting from scratch and delete any previous saves
That's even more strange because i'm also on android and the crash happens every single time... maybe this has to do with specific stats that i'm applying? I legit have no clue! Could be just a case of having to uninstall and re-install, so i'll do that! In any case, it doesn't stop me from playing, it just skips the beginning dialogue.