The original run of Space Battleship Yamato sees the ship through at least three separate wars and a spat of smaller incidents before it was destroyed by self-destruct in the film Final Yamato. It's stupidly strong in SRW because it really is that stupidly strong.
Okita : Divert power to plot shields! Combat speed 1.
Shima : Combat speed 1, Steady as she goes!!
Sanada : Shield deploy to ship's bow!
Okita : Main canons, OPEN FIRE!
Kodai : Main canons, FIRE!!!!
Well, in fairness, in SRW, the more central a given battleship is in its home series (either in fight scenes or by being in freakin' title), the more powerful it tends to be in gameplay (SEE: the Nadesico, any Macross battleship, Iron Gear, etc.). So it's not surprising that when the battleship is the series, that it's going to be pretty overwhelming.