RetroArch has the old-school Linux problem of “all the functionality you need, plus all the functionality anyone might ever need, plus all the functionality that no-one needs, all arranged seemingly at random in dozens of menus”
This definitely does happen sometimes, especially these days, but this is explicitly opposite to old-school Linux design principles. A program should do one thing, it should do it well, and it should be able to be plugged in to other processes in order to accomplish whatever this single-purpose program accomplishes. If you want it to do something else, go get/write a different package to do something different. This is actually explicitly stated in the “Unix Philosophy” papers by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, et al.
This is effectively the plot of Castlevania: Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, so go check those out. They’re quality. I would love to see the idea more fleshed out though.
Bonus points if we make this a proper VTM vampire game, but I’m biased because I was coming in here to use my vote on “VTM Bloodlines 2 but good”