Psyche-Lock

A Psyche-Lock is a mental barrier that prevents someone from drawing a secret out of someone else. Phoenix Wright's magatama can cause these barriers to appear as chains surrounding an individual that are sealed by red or black locks. The number of locks around an individual represents his or her determination to hide a particular secret. The number of Psyche-Locks guarding a secret varies from one lock to five.

Breaking Psyche-Locks

 * Main article: Magatama

Red Psyche-Locks on a secret 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.

Black Psyche-Locks
There was one instance in Turnabout Succession in which Phoenix Wright saw five black Psyche-Locks guarding a secret. These locks were unbreakable, and even when Apollo Justice figured out the nature of the secret, the keeper of the secret refused to admit to the truth of what Justice said.

Wright described these locks as "dark, cold, [and] full of despair".