LogFAQs > #963311450

Yeah, most of Caelid is definitely "supposed" to occur after Altus. With some exceptions: the Town of Sorcery for example is roughly equivalent with late Liurnia or early Altus, which makes sense because there is a sidequest that can be started there that runs through the plateau.

This is basically the Dark Souls 1 graveyard all over again but on a massive scale, and the game itself tricking you into doing this with the lift while hiding the route that's actually in line with a normal level/difficulty curve. In fact, one NPC calls it a "coward" route to intentionally goad you into doing Caelid instead. Unreal amounts of pranksterism on display.