Psyche-Lock

"Phoenix Wright"

- Aaack! What is that!?

"Ini Miney"

- ...?

"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 prevents someone from drawing a secret out of the holder of the barrier. Phoenix Wright's magatama can cause these barriers to appear as chains surrounding an individual, sealed by red or black locks. The number and color 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. Only the holder of the magatama is able to see the locks. Miles Edgeworth has also been able to see these locks during his time as acting defense attorney, but he calls them "Psycholocks".

Breaking 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.

A secret's 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 is hurt and his or her spirit strength is depleted. Physically, although Wright might exclaim "ouch" or something along those lines, he doesn't seem too bothered by it. Another opportunity is given to present evidence, but if too many mistakes are made, a voice will intervene with a warning: If he pushes himself further, his soul will shatter. Wright must then start from the beginning if he wishes to try again, and even then, he only gets one chance before he has to restart. Fortunately for Wright, the player can make as many of these attempts as they like; the aforementioned soul-shattering never takes place.

Luckily, when all the locks on an individual are removed, the user's strength is restored by half. It is also 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.

As part of the spirit medium training at Hazakura Temple, the nuns use physical trick locks, which greatly resemble Psyche-Locks, to lock spirit mediums in training rooms to ensure isolation.

Black Psyche-Locks
There was one instance in which Phoenix Wright saw five black Psyche-Locks guarding a secret. These locks were seemingly unbreakable as the keeper of the secret, Kristoph Gavin, was very determined and persistent in hiding it at all costs. Even when Apollo Justice figured out the nature of the secret, Gavin refused to admit to the truth of what Justice said. Wright described these locks as "dark", "cold" and "full of despair".

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. This means that brute-force guessing is punished throughout an episode, so even if failure to 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 subsequent games, the penalty health bar is replenished at the end of every investigation and trial segment, separating "spirit health" from courtroom penalties. Subsequently, mistakes are less punishable.

Music
There are two 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 Psyche-Lock theme is featured on both the Tanomi and TGS versions of the Gyakuten Saiban Meets Orchestra album as the opening section in a Fey clan-themed medley called "Kurain Genealogy" (consisting of the Psyche-Lock theme, "Dahlia Hawthorne ~ Distant Traces of Beauty", "Elise Deauxnim ~ Simple Melody" and one of the two versions of the 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.