Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design (2006)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design / 「逆転裁判、デザインそのココロ」

Source: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book

Summary: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book  was released in 2006, in the period between the release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS) and Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice). As a book aimed at fans of the series in this interim period, the book contains an interview with series writer/director Takumi, in which he looks back at the six years in which he has worked on the series until now. He talks about working on the first game and the difficulties they experienced during its development, from him not knowing how to write characters to the composer having to leave the project mid-way. He also talks about how it's almost miraculous how the three games formed one cohesive story, as he was always more concerned about making the next deadline and thus could not actually plan forward.

Twitter: Musical Memories (2021)

Title: Musical Memories

Source: Sugimori Masakazu's Twitter

Summary: On May 22, 2021, Sugimori Masakazu wrote a few tweets regarding his role in the development of the very first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) game on the GameBoy Advance. As the composer of the soundtrack of the first game in the series, he was responsible for a large part of the atmosphere of the first game. In this short series of tweets, Sugimori talks about how he basically had complete freedom over the soundtrack, but what's even more interesting is the reveal by Sugimori how it was Mori Atsushi, who worked on the sound effects of the game, who made many sound-related series staples possible in the first place.

In the translation below, each paragraph is a seperate tweet. 

Gyakuten Saiban 4 SE: Sandō (2007)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 4 SE: Sandō / 『逆転裁判4 SE: サンドウ』

Source: CAP’STONE (link not available anymore)

Summary: In 2007, Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) sound effect designer Sandō Yoshiki wrote a short piece for CAP’STONE, the official site for Capcom’s sound team about creating the sound effects for the game. He writes about updating the sound effects for the game in a way to keep the familiar feeling, but also about recording new sound effects, even if they are a bit weird, like the ‘sound of someone who falls on the floor while holding an acoustic guitar.’

Gyakuten Saiban 4 BGM: Horiyama (2007)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 4 BGM: Horiyama / 『逆転裁判4 BGM: ホリヤマ』
Source: CAP’STONE (link not available anymore)

Summary: In a short 2007 piece on CAP’STONE, the official site for Capcom’s sound team, Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) composer Horiyama Toshihoko revealed the unlikely story of how he created the theme song for the prosecutor Garyū Kyōya (Klavier Gavin). The piece Love Love Guilty (Guilty Love) is quite unlike any of the music tracks heard in earlier games in this series, but Horiyama reveals there’s also a very odd story behind the creation of the song.

A Report on the Talk Show at Tokyo Gametakt 2019 Where the Directors and Composers of the Kamaitachi no Yoru and Gyakuten Saiban Series Spoke About Mystery Game Music (2019)

Title: A Report on the Talk Show at Tokyo Gametakt 2019 Where the Directors and Composers of the Kamaitachi no Yoru and Gyakuten Saiban Series Spoke About Mystery Game Music / 「「かまいたちの夜」と「逆転裁判」のディレクターと作曲家がミステリーゲームの楽曲について語った，「東京ゲームタクト 2019」のトークショーをレポート]
Source: 4Gamer

Summary: On the first and second of June 2019, the game music event Tokyo Gametakt 2019 was held in Tokyo. One of the events there was a special treat for fans of mystery games: Kamaitachi no Yoru X Gyakuten Saiban – Composing Music for Mystery Adventure Games featured the directors and composers of the classic mystery videogames Kamaitachi no Yoru (Banshee’s Last Cry) and Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) and had them talk about how the music on those games was composed. From the Gyakuten Saiban team, the event featured game director/writer Takumi Shū and  composers Sugimori Masakazu and Iwadare Noriyuki.

This is a translation of 4Gamer's report on this event. Images are taken from the source article. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Celebrating The Release of Gyakuten Saiban 6! Behind-The-Scenes Tales Of The Sound Production Revealed (2016)

Title: Celebrating The Release of Gyakuten Saiban 6! Behind-The-Scenes Tales Of The Sound Production Revealed! / 「逆転裁判６ 発売記念！サウンド制作秘話を大公開！」
Source: CAP'STONE

Summary: In this interview posted on July 12, 2016 on CAP'STONE, Gyakuten Saiban 6 (Ace Attorney 6 - Spirit of Justice)'s sound director Horiyama talks about all things related to the sound design of the game. From how the sound effects are created, to the tracks he thinks are the most interesting, almost everything included in his job as the sound director is mentioned. Special attention goes to differentiating the original Japanese setting with the new setting of the Kingdom of Kurain in terms of sound.

15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Special Talk Session: The Music of the Gyakuten series – Horiyama Toshihiko X Iwadare Noriyuki (2017)

Title: 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Special Talk Session: The Music of the Gyakuten series - Horiyama Toshihiko X Iwadare Noriyuki / 「逆転裁判15周年記念トーク　「逆転」シリーズの楽曲　堀山俊彦 X 岩垂徳行」
Source: 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Series Encyclopedia 2001-2016

Summary: In this interview published in 15th Anniversary Gyakuten Saiban Series Encyclopedia 2001-2016, composer Iwadare Noriyuki and composer/main sound engineer Horiyama Toshihiko talk about the music of the Gyakuten Saiban series. Iwadare is an external composer who first got to work on the series with Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials and Tribulations) and worked on many other titles after that, while Horiyama is a Capcom employee who worked as main composer for Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 -Apollo Justice) and has worked as main sound engineer and secundary composer on other titles.The two talk about the characteristics of the music of the Gyakuten series, how they come up with their compositions and how they record their music. Interviews with the composers of the music of this series are actually quite rare, and this is perhaps the most informative one available at the moment.

Voice Recording Episodes (2004)

Title: Voice Recording Episodes / 「ボイス収録エピソード」
Source: Dreamaga, Issue 21, May-July, 2004

Summary: An interview with all six original voice actors in the first three Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) games was featured in a 2004 issue of Dreamaga, following the Game Boy Advance release of Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations). While nowadays professional voice actors are hired to voice the characters in these games, the original three games featured Capcom staff members, some of them even people who hadn't worked directly on the game series. In this short interview, the actors explain how they got their roles and talk about what went on during the recording sessions.

Gyakuten Saiban 5 Court Suite Lyrics (2014)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 5 Court Suite Lyrics
Source: Famitsu

Summary: The music of Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies) was featured in 2014's Okinawa Game Tact Special Gala Concert. Iwadare Noriyuki, who composed the music for the game, also composed the Gyakuten Saiban 5 Court Suite, an orchestral piece of music that combined several tracks used during the court sections of the game. The tracks used are:

• Kaitei ('Court Opens')
• Jinmon (Moderato) ('Cross Examination (Moderato))
• Jinmon (Allegro) ('Cross Examination (Allegro))
• Naruhodō Ryūichi ~ Igiari! ('Naruhodō Ryūichi ~ Objection!')
• Tsuikyū ~ Oitsumemakure ('Pursuit ~ Keep Pressing On')

As an extra special treat, scenario writer Yamazaki Takeshi wrote lyrics for the suite, which a chorus sang on the melody of the final part, Tsuikyū ~ Oitsumemakure. While Takumi Shū is a bit of an amateur musician and has written lyrics for music used in the games in the past, this is the first time Yamazaki did something of the sort. In an interview with the Cosmosky Orchestra website, Iwadare reveals that Yamazaki used his day off to write the lyrics for him. A romanized and translated version of the lyrics follow after the break.

Note: The original article uses "PHENIX", but it is more than likely this is a typo, so it's "PHOENIX" below.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 12: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (2) (2001)

Title: Every Meeting Is Fleeting Yet Precious (2) / 「一期一会 (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In his second post introducing all the staff members who worked on the original Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), Takumi looks at the rest of the development team he hadn't mentioned yet: Ōtani and Endō of Programming, and Sugimori and Mori of Sound Design. Sugimori Masukazu is probably the best known of these four, as he composed the iconic soundtrack of the first game. Sugimori would leave Capcom, but Takumi and Sugimori would team-up again for 2010's Ghost Trick. Mori is perhaps not very well known by name, but he was actually the person who "saved" the game. He was the person who had been added to the Gyakuten Saiban team when the game was about to be canceled because it didn't have enough staff members. The poor guy had to work on both the Biohazard (Resident Evil) team and the Gyakuten Saiban team (see blog entry 8).

Gyakuten Saiban 6 Blog Entry 15: It Happened After the Dance of Devotion~ (2016)

Title: It Happened After the Dance of Devotion~
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 6 offical site

Summary: Sound composer Horiyama Toshihiko, who also worked on Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4: Apollo Justice) and Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 - Dual Destinies), wrote this blog entry originally posted in July 11, 2016. The topic is a certain testimony early in the game, where the text was synchronized with the background music. Horiyama explains how they managed to make this.

Images are taken from the original source article. Copyrights belong to their respective owners, you know the story.