I’ve played a lot of RPGs… the last one i played for a longer time was Rogue Galaxy… i’m currently at roughly 40% of the game, and currently i have to go and collect 3 items in 3 separate dungeons.
and that was the point where i stopped playing the game (ok, not exactly, i went into one of the three dungeons and then stopped there).
i just cannot help it. for me it seems incredibly boring, that now the story will not move on until i do all 3 dungeons, which will probably involve nothing except going-through-the-dungeon, and fighting-the-boss. three times. i have the feeling that authors usually do this when they are simply out of ideas. now, it might be that actually in Rogue Galaxy, those 3 places (dungeons, whatever) are filled with fantastic story, but i don’t think so :)
the same happened in Neverwinter Nights, except that there you had to collect 4 items (4 stones if i remember correctly). and i hated it there too.
somehow this reminds me of Clichequest