Penalty


 * You may be looking for punishments imposed on convicted criminals, which can be found in the article legal system.

"Judge"

- Your effort wasn't wasted. Look, a brand-new penalty.

A penalty is a sanction issued to a lawyer for one of many reasons, usually due to breaking a rule or presenting irrelevant evidence. It can also refer to "damage" incurred on Phoenix Wright's spirit while using his magatama to break Psyche-Locks during investigations. Additionally, it can refer to a reduction in Miles Edgeworth's "truth gauge", signifying that Edgeworth is getting further away from the truth of a case.

Penalties in the courtroom
In the Ace Attorney series, penalties on the defense attorney "damage" a "health bar" or penalty capacity bar associated with the attorney, and a guilty verdict is immediately rendered if this bar is depleted during a trial. This health bar is 80 pixels long, and it represents the only resource in the series that the player needs to maintain to avoid losing. Presenting irrelevant evidence during a cross-examination to interrupt a witness always results in a penalty equal to 20% of the attorney's total penalty capacity. Pressing certain witnesses on certain details can also incur a penalty.

The attorney is usually made aware that a wrong decision will result in a penalty, though often he or she is not. People in the courtroom are aware of the health bar and can show the extent of the penalty they want to give on it. When the health bar runs out, the judge implies that he has lost his patience with the defense and has decided that there is no further case to be made against the prosecution. However, this is largely a relic of the first game, and it does not take into account variations in penalties in subsequent games. Although prosecutors can receive penalties following trials, there has not been any evidence of official penalties on prosecutors during court proceedings to date.

Penalties in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
In the first game, penalty capacity is represented by exclamation marks. Phoenix Wright starts with five and loses one for every penalty received. However, a guilty verdict can still be rendered independently of this penal system in some instances; notably in Turnabout Goodbyes, in which refusing to cross-examine Lotta Hart at any point after Maya is arrested for contempt of court will lead to an immediate guilty verdict. Penalty capacity is replenished at the end of each chapter, including the segments of trials in Rise from the Ashes.

Penalties in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All
The second game introduces the "Confidence Gauge", which is adopted in subsequent games. One consequence of this is that the judge can give penalties in various degrees of severity depending on the seriousness of the attorney's accusations or a deal made between the attorney and the judge or prosecutor. The attorney is usually made aware of the severity of the penalty that will be dealt if he or she makes a wrong decision, though often he or she is not, and in Turnabout Big Top, the penalty warning is misleading (with the penalty being less severe if Wright answers that he "can't prove it" during Moe's first testimony, and double the shown penalty if he says that the murder weapon is hidden in the judge's bench).

In this game, the amount of "confidence" that Wright has carries over to every chapter in an episode and can only be replenished by breaking a character's Psyche-Locks, which recovers 50% of Wright's total capacity. Penalties are dealt in multiples of 10% of the bar, with a maximum of 100% possible on five different occasions (by far the most of any game in the series), with four of them being in Farewell, My Turnabout alone, and the fifth being in Turnabout Big Top, which happens if any statement is pressed during Moe's final testimony.

Penalties in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
In the third game, the "health bar" is replenished at the end of a trial or an investigation but not at the end of a chapter during an investigation or trial. One consequence of this is that trial penalties and spirit penalties are kept separate. Penalties are dealt similarly to the previous game, with a 100% penalty possible when pressing a wrong statement in the final testimony during The Stolen Turnabout and at the end of Bridge to the Turnabout.

Penalties in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
In the fourth game, penalty capacity is replenished at the end of each chapter, including chapters that end in the middle of a trial. Penalties are dealt in multiples of 20%, with a maximum of 80% occurring at the end of Turnabout Succession.

Penalties in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
In the fifth game, penalty capacity is replenished at the start of an investigation segment, but not between trial segments taking place on the same day. Psyche-Lock and Perceive segments can no longer incur penalties, and with the exception of one question near the end of Turnabout Academy, all penalties are dealt as 20% of the gauge.

Should the penalty capacity be depleted, the player will be given the opportunity to start again at the point where he or she failed, or go back to the title screen.

Penalties in Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
For the crossover game with the Professor Layton series, the penalty system returns to the original system from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. During trial segments Wright has five strikes, with each mistake costing one. During the prologue trial in London, said strikes are represented by the exclamation marks featured in Wright's first game. However, for most of the game (i.e. the section taking place in Labyrinth City) they are represented by shields bearing the insignia of the Labyrinth City knights.

After each trial chapter, any remaining strikes are converted into picrarats, the staple points for the Professor Layton series.

Penalties in investigations
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations and Turnabout Succession, the "Confidence Gauge" is also used to denote Phoenix Wright's "spirit health". If Wright presents the wrong evidence while trying to break someone's Psyche-Lock, he suffers a penalty to his spirit; the extent of the damage depends on the nature of what Wright is trying to prove. If his "spirit health" is depleted, the lock-breaking process immediately terminates. However, this does not result in losing the game, and Wright is free to attempt to break any person's Psyche Locks, albeit with virtually no health.

Additionally, in Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, the "Truth Gauge" represents a gauge showing how close to the truth of a case Miles Edgeworth is. Wrong inferences in logic or arguments produce penalties on this gauge, and if the gauge is depleted, the game will end with the statement: "Thus the truth was lost for all eternity." All penalties cut 10% from the "truth gauge" except for one argument in Turnabout Ablaze, in which pressing or presenting incorrect evidence cuts 20% from the gauge. However, the end of each investigation can replenish 50% of the bar.

Penalties follow the same system in Gyakuten Kenji 2, with the vast majority of penalties being 10%. However, failing a round of Logic Chess results in a 5% penalty, while presenting incorrect evidence at a certain point in The Forgotten Turnabout incurs a 50% penalty. In addition, the standard penalty is increased to 30% near the end of The Grand Turnabout, and to 50% for the final rebuttal. In the Logic Chess battle of Yumihiko Ichiyanagi during The Grand Turnabout, if Edgeworth tells Yumihiko that he is a failure as a human being, then the penalty will be 100% and the time bar will drop to empty, making this the only Logic Chess battle where such a penalty can be received.