Erich Van Houten

Erich Van Houten is a character from Xenogears. He is the father of Elly.

Appearance and personality
Erich has short blonde hair, brown eyes and a mustache. His official character artwork within Perfect Works has him with brown hair instead of blonde. This was presumably fixed within the game as all first class Solarian citizens are supposed to have blonde hair.

Despite his high ranking position in Solaris, Erich felt guilty for his work with the Soylent System and M Project and in the present day seeks to help as many land dwellers as possible. Although he initially comes off as a strict parent for Elly, he loves her dearly.

Story arc
Erich is a first class citizen and high ranking officer within Solaris. He previously held the commanding position for the Soylent System. He also worked with Maria's father Nikolai on the M Project. Upon realizing that humans were involved in these experiments he resigned his position and instead worked to help rescue people from becoming Wels. He currently works as a Bureau Special Affairs Minister. He is married to Medena and is the father of Elly.

Erich first appears at Elly's house in Solaris when Elly breaks into a computer in his room in order to find the whereabouts of Bart and other captured allies. Erich initially wants to kill Fei as an intruder, but submits to Elly's request to let him go as long as she stays behind. He later changes his mind and allows Elly to be with Fei, handing her an access card to the Soylent System. He is then arrested by the Solaris Imperial Guard when he refuses to follow orders to hand her over to Krelian.

As the party flees from Solaris, helps free both of Elly's parents from captivity. While Medena remains with Elly and the others, Erich splits off to help obtain transportation for the group. When Grahf and Miang (dressed as the Executioner) confront the party upon their escape, he arrives in an unnamed Gear to try and help them escape. With her ether power Miang destroys his Gear and he dies after saying goodbye to his daughter.

Trivia
According to his concept art, Erich's hair was originally brown, but it was changed to blond in the final release.