With the increasing presence of embodied conversational agents (ECAs) in our daily lives, it is crucial to understand how the degree of their physical embodiment influences user engagement and perception. Previous research has explored this relationship, revealing a tendency for higher embodiment levels to result in better engagement and performance. However, the potential impact of novelty in the ECA experience has yet to be thoroughly investigated, despite being acknowledged in prior studies. To address this research gap, we conducted an experiment where participants interacted with three distinct Social Plantroid embodiment levels and provided ratings of their perception and preference, while engagement was estimated from the volunteers’ facial expressions. Our findings indicate weak to moderate correlations between participants’ experience with robots, engagement, and their perceived characteristics of the ECAs, suggesting that both novelty and physical embodiment play a role in shaping interactions with ECAs.