Doom is my game of the year, however Im not sure it can be classed as a surprise. Watch Dogs 2 has been a massive surprise though, really fun and polished game, I love it. Pokken Tournament has also been a breath of fresh air, love the mechanics in that game. I have Tokyo Mirage in my backlog, but doubt I will get it started before early 2017.

Mafia 3.
From the first looks, I was convinced the game sucks balls. Then came the release and the hate only got stronger. Everyone hated the game. I still got it, because I liked the other two games, so whatever. Started playing and I still was convinced that this game is going to be shit! It took 10 hours or so until I had to confess to myself that I was having a hell lot of fun. Sure, the story sucks balls, the characters are flat like the netherlands at Easter, but I never cared about that stuff anyway, lulz. The gamplay is just so fluid and addicting that I couldn't stop playing! I played through that sucker twice and I'm thinking about giving it another go.

Oh, and sure there were bugs. But I loved those! I had no gamebreaking bug whatsoever, just minor glitches and those were funny as hell. Like people all of a sudden flying all over the place, cars exploding for no reason and stuff like that. I laughed way more than I should at that stuff.

My personal game of the year, screw the haters!

The Danganrompa games. Best games I've played this year, only Doom 2016 can get close to them. It doesn' help that I find Sun/Moon to be very dissapointing to...

I guess nothing as I tend to actually make sure I know exactly what I'm buying before buying it.

Okay fine even I don't always, but atleast this year I did so for every game.

Kingdom: New Lands

Oh my God what an intelligent, atmospheric, fantastic game.

If you ever get interested in this and decide to buy, don't look up any "Let's plays" or guides on the internet (in fact, I recommend you only watch the first half of the trailer above). Just play it, and don't give up even if it's hard and confusing. Keep playing. At most google carefully for specific questions you have at the moment and then go right back and play the game, and you will get an incredible experience.

Only $7.5 on Steam right now. Might cost a bit more on Xbox, but it's so worth it.

Cool that somebody brought it up. Oxenfree was very unique. Well worth it.

INSIDE

They've taken parts of FF8 and released it on mobile, such as Triple Triad. It might not be a game that translates well due to its greater complexity over other FF games. It may require some design.
I just hope they don't ruin it like they did with FF6. Pulling an FF7 controller pasted on the screen would be even better than that monstrosity of a control system.

But I really hope they bring FF8 soon, it was the last great Final Fantasy for me.

Mine would be Dragon Quest builders. I have yet to actually finish it, but the level of creativity it provides you is awesome. Being a huge fan of the Sims, I can seriously see myself getting lost into that game for hours. Even though it plays like mine craft, I love the fact it never lost the spirit of Dragon Quest. The music, art, characters, enemies, and world was giving me hardcore nostalgia. It's such a great game, I really need to get back to it.

Trails of Cold Steel
(haven't finished CS2 yet)

Runner-ups
World of Final Fantasy
Dragon Quest Builders