Thought so. It DID look suspicious.
EDIT: I got this fixed. Apparently, the crash isn't completely random; it's somehow associated with alt-tabbing out of the game. For some reason, the game sometimes crashes when the battle swirl animation tries to start after an alt-tab. So, if you simply don't alt-tab, you won't encounter the stupidity that's this crash. Don't ask me how is any of this connected, but I've done some testing and it sounds believable.
More importantly, this isn't how I fixed my issue at all. Not alt-tabbing is just too inconvenient for me when I'm trying to follow a walkthrough for a perfect save file. I had to look for a real solution, and I think I succeeded. I installed Dzuigo's MGP (Mini-game patch), and the game hasn't crashed since then.
For anyone interested, the MGP and the multi-patcher needed for applying the patch both can be found here:
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=5124.0Just follow the instructions and you're set.