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Wild Arms 2 隊長:「――少年を人質に取った誘拐犯はこの先の旧発掘跡… 、通称『枯れた遺跡』に立て篭もっているとの情報が入った」 Commander:「We now know that the kidnappers are holding the boy hostage... up ahead in the old excavation site known as "The Withered Ruins."

In the video game Wild Arms 2, I've always wondered what these 2 dashes are supposed to indicate, and how the translators came up with their translation. I'm not even sure what its called exactly. Is it a wakisen or a nakasen? I mean, what difference would it make if the sentence did not begin with this elongated dash or dashes? Would it have any impact on the meaning?

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  • If it's used only sometimes, I think this is a duplicate. If it's always used when someone says something in this game, it's a quotative dash.
    – naruto
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 1:16
  • @naruto Thanks for the help! Maybe the commander was "quoting" someone else. It seems to me maybe the translators themselves probably had this question, and just left it as the 'commander' speaking directly, like it was "his own" information he was giving. Maybe they could've also translated this as, "...And so, we now know that the kidnappers are holding the boy hostage... up ahead in the old excavation site known as "The Withered Ruins."
    – SomaRise
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 1:31
  • Um, is 「―― used unconditionally whenever someone says something in this game? If no, it's a reflective pause, not a quotation mark, as explained in my first link. This is also related. The commander may have been hesitating or thinking for a moment.
    – naruto
    Commented Jul 27, 2021 at 1:49

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