Right the art (completing missions / journey milestone) is lovely and is absolutely needs to be praised.

First save on brand new save slot takes a long time, windows even claims game has stopped responding so to counter (as i have repeatedly) players from closing game maybe have a screen explaining that first save takes longer? Just you know let players know that this takes a little longer than other saves and to be patient, helps to see something is happening as opposed to black screen aswell, maybe just a animation of stars or something would do.