Removing line 263 from screens.rpy by adding "#" to the beginning seems to fix it. Line can be added back in after you get to the first battle and create a save point. You just can't start a new game with it.
Some quests require that a player be a specific level before you can proceed. I found playerlevel == checks in definitions.rpy line 440 and 454 that should be changed to >= if you want to use the LVL cheat.