Restarting doesn't work too much; it's a good idea though.

this was actually quite an interesting idea! I am guessing you didn't have enough time to work on it, or enough experience, but you could try and build on this idea, it makes for very interesting puzzle design! What I'd recommend is make the movement analog, so the two players can move in a radius of each other, and give a visualisation for the chain. That would make for a nice top down puzzler requiring some very precise movement and thinking!