Yes, the game takes a very long time to load when you launch it. There's a lot of data for it to process, and even on a super high-end computer it will take over a minute for the initial load, and a similar amount of time when loading large battles. On more normal PCs it will take longer. The only practical thing you can do is optimise the data access by defragmenting the hard drive you installed the game on. Upgrading to a faster processor, more and faster RAM, and a faster hard disc will make some difference but the reduction in load time will not be worth the cost.

I use the time to make a cup of tea. Same with load times for large battles.