Psyche-Lock

"Pearl Fey"

- You can see it, can't you, Mr. Nick? You can see the "lock" on that person's heart.

A Psyche-Lock is a mental barrier that an individual possesses, which protects their secrets from others. Phoenix Wright's magatama can cause these barriers to appear as chains surrounding an individual, sealed by red or black locks. Only the holder of the magatama is able to see the locks. Miles Edgeworth was also able to see these locks when he used Wright's magatama during his time as an acting defense attorney, although he mispronounced them as "Psycholocks". As part of the spirit medium training at Hazakura Temple, the nuns use physical trick locks, which greatly resemble Psyche-Locks, to seal spirit mediums in training rooms to ensure isolation.

Red Psyche-Locks

 * Main article: Magatama

"Pearl Fey"

- The more someone wants to hide their secret, the more locks you will see. If it's only one, I think you can easily unlock it.



Red Psyche-Locks represent a secret that an individual is consciously trying to hide. The number of locks around them represents their determination to hide the secret, and this number can vary from one to five. Red Psyche-Locks can be broken by correctly identifying a clue that is related to the secret. This usually involves presenting evidence or a profile from the court record. The effectiveness of such an action on Psyche-Locks varies; it may take two clues to break a single lock, or a single clue may break four. When the locks break, they shatter with a sound akin to a glass window breaking.

If a mistake is made by presenting the wrong evidence, then the user may lose spiritual strength. This was a real and present threat for Wright prior to the end of his disbarment period. Physically, however, although Wright might have exclaimed "ouch" or something along those lines, he did not seem too bothered by it. If too many mistakes were made, a voice would intervene with a warning that, if he pushed himself further, his soul would shatter. Wright would then have to start from the beginning if he wished to try again, and even then, he only had one chance before he had to restart. Fortunately for Wright, however, the fatal threat to his soul never actually came to pass, and he could make as many attempts on Psyche-Locks as he liked. Luckily, when all the locks on an individual were removed, the user's spiritual strength was restored by half. These dangers to Wright's soul seem to have been rendered irrelevant ever since Pearl Fey recharged Wright's magatama.

It is possible to stop the process whenever the choice is given to produce proof if it is felt that not enough evidence has been gathered to break all of the locks. Unfortunately, if the process is abandoned, then the next attempt has to start again from the beginning, with any locks that were broken completely restored.

Iris and Herman Crab both showed five red Psyche-Locks, which were not broken conventionally. However, Iris eventually revealed her secret on her own, while Herman Crab's secret was eventually revealed in court.

Black Psyche-Locks
"Phoenix Wright"

- (Wh-Whoa! I've never seen Psyche-Locks like these! Dark... Cold... Full of despair... Can I even unlock these things?)

Black Psyche-Locks represent a secret that an individual keeps subconsciously, without even being aware of it and cannot be removed by presenting evidence. Forceful attempts to remove them can cause permanent emotional and spiritual damage. Wright has described black Psyche-Locks as dark, cold and full of despair. The two people Wright has met who manifested black Psyche-Locks presented two very different situations surrounding them. In Kristoph Gavin's case, the sheer paranoia he showed in hiding his schemes from others caused him to ignore Wright's questioning entirely when asked about his motive for murdering Zak Gramarye. Even when Apollo Justice and Klavier Gavin found out about Kristoph's spying activities and his murder of Drew Misham, Kristoph dismissed it all as "quite an entertaining piece of fiction."

On the other hand, Athena Cykes's black Psyche-Locks stemmed from a traumatic event involving the death of her mother, Metis Cykes. Wright broke these locks by rethinking the entire case and realizing that a mysterious intruder wearing a mask had killed Metis. This caused Athena's memories of the event to return.

Gameplay
In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, breaking Psyche-Locks is the only way to replenish the penalty health bar in a given episode. This means that mistakes in breaking Psyche-Locks impact the leeway given in trial segments, and mistakes in the courtroom impact the leeway given in Psyche-Lock breaking. Consequently, brute-force guessing is punished throughout an episode, so even if failure to break Psyche-Locks does not directly result in a game over, it is inadvisable to go all-out unless the player doesn't mind resetting many times or even starting from the beginning. The player should instead make sure that all possible evidence has been gathered.

In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, the penalty health bar is replenished at the end of every investigation and trial segment, separating "spirit health" from courtroom penalties. Penalties are removed entirely from investigations in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, removing the "spirit health" notion from the Psyche-Lock breaking process altogether.

Music
There are three pieces of background music used when an attempt is made to break Psyche-Locks. The first is simply titled "Psyche-Lock" and is used in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. The second is "Psyche-Lock 2007", a slightly more intricate version used in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. The third is "Psyche-Lock 2013", used in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies.

The Psyche-Lock theme is featured on the Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra album as the opening section of a Fey clan-themed medley called "Kurain Genealogy" (consisting of the Psyche-Lock theme, "Dahlia Hawthorne ~ Distant Traces of Beauty", "Elise Deauxnim ~ Gentle Melody", and "Turnabout Sisters' Theme")

Localization
In the Japanese versions of the games, the Psyche-Locks were instead called "Psycho Locks". In the English localization, Miles Edgeworth and Drew Misham refer to Psyche-Locks as "psycholocks" and "psycho locks", respectively. This may be a reference to their original name.

In other media

 * In the manga "Professor Layton and the Cheerful Mystery Volume 1", which is based upon the Professor Layton video game series, Luke Triton uses what appear to be Psyche-Locks to lock his door.


 * In the anime series Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, Psyche-Locks make a brief cameo appearance when the main character Nozomu Itoshiki attempts to lie about never being abroad. The scene in question can be viewed here.