I have found the best option for freezing (at least in PS3) is to train yourself to save on a separate file every time you see your game auto saving. When it is saving, don't move, as the hiccups seem to sometimes happen when it's saving and loading more of the area at the same time or doing something that is graphically intensive (like big mage spells). It doesn't stop the crashes all the time but I have found the majority of my 'lost a ton of time playing' has been fixed by being viligent and keeping multiple saves in case one gets borked. When convos get borked, as someone mentioned, best thing to do is mash square. I found that sometimes pressing the start button and going back to the game eventually unsticks it. This is how I got through Cass's romance scene (major hang-up on a line by Cass for example during a romance scene).
They really need to patch the freezing issue, especially when it involves saving. I can deal with a lot of things and know I signed up for a less graphically sound experience getting it for the PS3 so I expect it to not be AMAZING looking, but having to be OCD about saving after every little thing gets tiring very quickly.
Also worth noting is that it appears the freezing issue is hitting PS4 as well, and other systems...probably not as much, but this is clearly a bug that needs fixing across the board.