How drastically? I have two save files, one autosave file, and one quicksave file. That's all. It takes over a minute for every single area transition and 15+ seconds to quicksve/load. The game is already exceedingly hard to play, I would hate to see it being much worse than this.
Wow, this is rather extreme. Over a minute to load a new area? Damn. Mine ranges from about 15 to 20 seconds most of the time.
As for save files, I try to go with more than just the Autosave and the Quicksave, just because I like having some fall back saves. That said, I don't keep my manual saves around for long. I try to thin the herd every so often. I also have turned off the Steam save file auto-sync, which seemed to improve loading up the "Load Game" screen a fair bit.
Sorry, I think I was a bit ambiguous, I have two manual save files, in addition to auto and quick. So four overall, but still not enough to be causing issues. I also have the GoG version, so steam syncing isn't an issue either.
But yeah, a minute per area is getting kind of insufferable. I just had to backtrack from level 15 of Od Nua to the Dyrford Inn and back, so I spent the best part of ten minutes just in loading screens. It's gotten worse the further I've gotten into the game, so I started a new file just to see the difference and sure enough, quicksaves/loads take a second and area transitions take about 15-20. The game also seems to run a lot more smoothly.