Memory Vaults

“Some minds try to protect themselves by locking memories away in VAULTS. Chase them down and bust them open to reveal the repressed memories inside.”

–Psychonauts 2 description

Memory Vaults, also known as mental vaults, are mental figures found in mental worlds. Each vault contains a memory of the mental world's host that had a significant contribution to the host's current mental state. The memories can be accurate recollections, intentionally or unintentionally fabricated^[1], or a combination of all three.

For example, the vault A Land Without Caviar shows scenes of protesters holding signs with slogans, some of which say "Blah blah blah" or "Problems", highlighting the self-centered worldview of the mind to which the memory belongs. Just like Raz's appearance changes through the eyes of others when he enters their view using Clairvoyance, the memories locked inside Memory Vaults can be distorted or embellished due to the passage of time, trauma, emotional significance, or denial, among others.

Description[]

“In all my days of whalin', I've never caught one of these!”

–First Mate Loboto

Vaultmouthopen — A memory vault with its mouth open.

Memory vaults are sentient safes that resemble dogs, with "mouths" located directly behind their faces. The vaults prance around and run away when approached. Razputin can stun them with an attack, making them swing open their faces to reveal their tongue and mouth. Once a vault is opened, the memory it holds appears in a Viewmaster slideshow of static images. Once a memory is unlocked, it can be accessed at any time from Raz's Journal.

Trivia[]

Using Clairvoyance on any Mental Vault will reveal they see Raz as a dog catcher.
All memories are presented in sepiatone, with the exception of Little House in the Psyche.
The (now defunct) Psychonauts Vault Viewer app for iOS provided a way of viewing the memories outside of the game along with developer commentary.
Although Mental Vaults can represent false or manufactured memories, this does not seem to affect their behavior.
All memories are illustrated by Scott Campbell.
Some characters that normally have 4 fingers on each hand will sometimes have 5 fingers in memory vaults.
Psychonauts has 19 memory vaults (29 including primal memories), Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin has 1, and Psychonauts 2 has 20.
Mental worlds typically have two memory vaults, with some exceptions in both Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2.
- The first vault, typically a happy or fabricated memory, is generally easier to spot. The second vault, often a traumatic or sad memory, is harder to find - buried deeper in the psyche.
The Memory Vault Raz comes out of in PSI King's Sensorium is unique:
- It does not try to flee from Raz, while others do.
- It released a Mental Figure, while most of the others simply show slides with the person's memories.
- This vault cannot be opened, as it either only appears during the cutscenes, or cannot be reached due to being in the background.