Alright I'm like 5 hours into Xenogears and I still don't understand the combat system actually works

Like, I don't know what booster does, I don't know what attack level is or how to increase it, I don't know if the numbers on the right are even real at all, I don't know why successive attacks/combos are only possible sometimes, I don't know why some attacks are almost guaranteed to miss on some enemies

I'm guessing I should look it up