Having trouble loading Nintendo's latest eShop game? We might have a solution.
So you bought Sakura Samurai despite my lukewarm review and it won't load? That sucks.
But seriously, I ran into the same issue when I was reviewing the game. I booted the game and it would just start with a black screen with "Loading..." spazzing out in the bottom right-hand corner of the system. It effectively froze my system, as the only way to restart is to hold the power button down and do a hard reset.
When I asked our Nintendo representatives about this issue, they had no idea. Fortunately, I was running out of SD card space at the same time, so I bought a new SD card, replacing the one that came with the system. After moving the files over to the new bigger SD card, Sakura Samurai worked fine.
I can't promise this will 100% solve the issue, but it worked for me. Afterwards, I was able to play the game to completion with no technical issues.
In conclusion, try getting a new SD card if Sakura Samurai isn't loading for you.