It is aimed to be 2.5 D real time and called Wild Creatures are just like real animals and collections of objects for a which a spark gave them like and powers. The aim of the game is give the player some of the feel of Pokemon anime in battles. You worked as Wild Creature Rescue Centre so you can capture 5 WC to start with- note if you are good person then you easily capture WC. Healing costs. They have a health and will damage meters with potential to injury the WC. Each move has a communication time, preparation time and action time, accuracy, power and special effects- which can train to improve all but power. and special effects The moves are aimed to do what they say. The WC have a specialty but how to give them more interesting moves available that their speciality plus regular attacks.

I am not exactly sure what you are asking, but if you are looking for a way to differentiate each WC, try giving each WC a theme in the type of moves they can have and pick moves you think fit that theme.

As for interesting moves themselves it is just thinking of the weirdest moves you possibly can and write them down. Even if you never use them it is good to just get in the right headspace.

If you need some inspiration go through the character moves lists for some older guilty gear games. They were pretty wild.

@moxyio weirdest moves you possibly can

I was just going to go with mirroring phenomena of all types- natural, supernatural and technological have so many and for comparison Pokemon uses so few.

The trouble is they just have something like all sorts of fighting (animalistic/martial arts) and their primary type then that is rather limiting to give the WC diversity. I mentally coming up with few concepts for the WC myself.

if you just sit down and try to think of things i suspect you are going to just give yourself a headache.

It will probably come in random spurts when you see things.

I would carry a notepad and when ever you get a good idea write it down.

Also look at other games with weird moves.

Guilty gear +r, blazblue central fiction, wizard of legend, melty blood all come to mind to look at for ideas.

As for elemental types limiting moves, don't worry about that. Just come up with cool moves and assign elemental types as needed.

The player doesn't start with 5 creatures- they can just get up to five easily, The player may not want as there is a cost to caring and training Wild Creatures. There is however a value to having a diverse team beyond the combat as you earn money by have a wide range of combinations- your attacks and enemy's attacks. @LorenzoGatti

Special effects are meant to small tactical benefits.

The main game is treating your creatures like individuals.

The moves are intended to understandable in their interactions and mirroring phenomena.

It has Pokemon-like types but the typing is not as major as in Pokemon. For many creatures, the type might give them defence options. Only a few are really majorly offensively- psychic and ghost have a lot. (for training and battle handling has a big cost)

The question is how to give creature a more interesting move pool than just their type and fighting moves.

Think in term of game mechanics and competitive balance. Ideally, you want to give the player a compelling reason for using every move you put in the game. That means that for each move, there is a strategy or tactical situation where it is clearly the best move. Don't fall into the trap of making everything the same in the name of balance, but also avoid making super-moves that render other moves obsolete.

I would start by making a set of strategies, then making a big paper-rock-scissor chart of which strategy beats which other strategy, then make moves to support these strategies. For example, let's say you have a big, slow, strong melee creature. How would you beat it? Maybe by staying out of melee range and using ranged attacks. So how would you beat the ranged attackers? Maybe with a really fast melee attacker, who would in turn be weak against the stronger, slower melee attacker you already have. What other strategies would work against one or more of them? Well, you could have a flying ranged attacker who is strong against all ground-based melee attackers by being completely unreachable, but vulnerable to ground-based ranged attacks. Or a wind-using creature who can deflect ranged attacks. Or a stealth creature that depends on hiding, and a vision creature that excels at beating stealth creatures. Or whatever makes sense for your particular game world and your particular set of game mechanics.