Knife buying is a market full of beautiful marketing and not much practical guidance. A $300 Japanese knife and a $35 supermarket knife can look almost identical online. The good news is there are only four data points you really need to compare them, and three of them are numbers.
First, blade length. For most home cooks, an 8-in chef knife is the sweet spot. A 6-in knife is too short to rock-cut through an onion in one pass, a 10-in knife feels like a sword on most home cutting boards. Second, the steel hardness on the Rockwell scale, abbreviated HRC. A 56 HRC blade is soft, easy to sharpen, but dulls fast. A 62 HRC blade holds an edge much longer but is harder to sharpen at home.
Third, the bevel angle, measured in degrees per side. A German-style knife is usually around 20 degrees per side; a Japanese-style knife is around 12 to 15. Lower angles cut more cleanly but are more delicate. The fourth and most important data point is the word: forged or stamped. A forged blade has a thicker bolster and better balance. Stamped blades are lighter and cheaper. There is no wrong answer, but a forged blade lasts decades.